Finally arrived in Perth after the monster 17 hour flight. Fortunately I slept for 13 hours of it; the only time I was awake was to see Keira Knightley jump into a pond and eat meals. Not too bad going.
Perth is nice and hot so far, about 25 deg C. No snow but a bit of rain on the first day. Perth is a strange place; really great suburbs and Kings Park which overlooks it is beautiful, but not so sure about the centre. Good main street but there just isn't that much of it; plus the main drinking areas are full of wasted student types and we're too old to blend in these days...
On to the title of this story: Had our first lesson on Sunday - don't leave sorting out your accommodation until the day you check out. Bizarrely, Perth is absolutely crammed at the moment, so we spent most of the day running around getting more panicked. The tourist info place was telling people to head 'at least an hour' out of Perth which wasn't helping. We thought we'd managed to secure something via a website called Discover West that showed availability - unfortunately after waiting 2 hours for a response we were emailed back (this is now 4 pm) to say that it wasn't available. So, as a last ditch we went back to Miss Mauds where we'd checked out of in the morning and asked whether they had anything. They did - someone had cancelled 10 mins earlier. So we checked back in. I'm not so keen on the room we've got this time but probably won't complain.
Anyway, off up north tomorrow into the wilderness to see snakes and crocodiles and everything else Australian. Laura's driving because I've only got half my driving license...
Rob and Laura
