Kangaroo… check, adventures in Aussie-land

The city of Perth has free WiFi everywhere! That’s one amazing fact about this place, but certainly not the last..wow. We have been in Perth every day now since we arrived. This is now a cakewalk finding our way around. Today our goal is to find a kangaroo and maybe tie him down, maybe we’ll sing that kangaroo song to him.. quietly.

Our quest starts out well enough, meaning we make it into Perth without incident. The directions to Harrison Island in the middle of the city under a causeway also seem simple enough. Beware of simple though and jovial bus drivers that had bad divorces. Did I mention I was divorced, damn.

Well, he lets us off a mile from where we need to be. We didn’t know that at the time. We are directionally challenged here in Aussie-land, I think it has everything to do with driving on the wrong side of the road.

My girlfriend pulled me back onto the sidewalk when I mistakenly looked the wrong way, I saw it was clear and headed out. Holy shit, that was a close call as a car whizzes past me a second later. Does that make her responsible for me for life.. isn’t that how it works?

We walked for miles or so it seems, he had let us off in a pretty deserted district and said take a right then a left, and follow your nose. He even went out of his way to drop us off supposedly closer! I shouldn’t have told him I was happily divorced, ah well.

After about an hour and asking two different sets of people for directions we finally find the dirt path that leads us to find our roo! The city of Perth has seeded seven Kangaroos onto Harrison Island for dopey tourists like us who want to experience a kangaroo in the wild. We come across two of them and although shy at first they let us pet them, do not feed them.

Anyone can see them in a zoo or a wildlife habitat.. we prefer the natural surroundings in the middle of a city .. under a freeway. The walk back to catch a bus is simple, less than 10 minutes.. that bus driver probably deserved that ugly divorce, may he rot in … oops my outside voice again.

We are smiling and happy that we are back on track. The roundabout ride on this bus takes a different route and we admire all that Perth reveals to us. This city is perhaps the most visually pleasing city I have seen. The blend of the old and the new appeals to me.

The old buildings seem like they are new and every kind of architecture is represented. The way they are situated also seems like they have given birth to the new buildings rising into the sky at different angles and shapes. No twins or triplets here though, these are all individual buildings, related by the marriage of unsegregated beauty. I know I surprised myself even… well, it made sense to me when I wrote it.

I think I love this place and I could live here. I would have to give up drinking though (20 bucks for a soda) maybe food too hmmm.. na, guess we’ll have to leave after all. So this bus driver tells us to skip the cat bus and catch a different one, a shortcut he says. They have Cat buses that roam the city in different directions and you can hop on and off.. they are free too. Four colors distinguish which areas they travel in, Red Yellow Blue, and Green.

This shortcut takes us almost out to Freemantle (of course we took it going the wrong way) so we add another two hours onto our bus riding journey, ok so maybe it was just over an hour more. Let’s talk about the buses .. they are all free to everyone inside the city.

These buses are clean and open and bright and cheery and have lots of room. They are easy to get on and off, even having a little hydraulic ramp for wheelchairs and baby strollers oh.. and they are ALL wheelchair accessible.

The bicycle traffic shares the wide sidewalks that are made for strolling and joggers and everyone. They all are fit here except me.. ah well, the price of food may have something to do with it. No drunks around either hahaha…

So we finally get on the right bus and we stop for supper at a place recommended by our bellman at our hotel. Two plates of spaghetti, garlic toast, and a corona for my girlfriend (8.50 a bargain, for the beer) sixty dollars later, we are on our way home.

We are out of money and ready for bed.. a little side comment here.  I read in today’s paper that a senator’s son was put in jail for counterfeiting money. That got me thinking.. na, but who can blame him, he was probably just hungry or liked to drink ..hmmm

To be continued

copyright Sept. 30, 2015