Visiting Perth a.k.a. Honeymoon Part 2

I am a lazy kangaroo, just like in the photo above. Today, I am finally posting about my trip to Perth last December. Prepare for photo spam!

Last December, I visited Jex during the last two weeks of his trip to Perth. He's been going back and forth Manila and Perth for work for more than a year already and he really wanted me to visit him just in case he won't be asked to go back. We called it our honeymoon part 2 haha.

Some Trivia About Perth

• It is the 4th most populous city in Australia 
• It is in the same time zone as the Philippines (easier to talk)
• It is the sunniest city in Australia, getting an average of sunshine 8 hours per day
• It is the 3rd windiest city in the world
• Summer happens from December until February
• Autumn happens from March until May
• Winter happens from June until August
• Spring happens from September until November
• The late Heath Ledger was born in Perth

Jex is in Perth for work so naturally he's in the CBD (central business district). He gets to live in a serviced apartment, which is around 15-20 minutes away from his office. He prefers a serviced apartment than a hotel because he gets a kitchen. Even if he doesn't always cook he at least has a big fridge and a microwave oven, which basic hotel rooms don't have. When I visited I took advantage of the oven in his apartment. I baked and cooked as much as I could.

I tried making an apple crumble instead of an apple pie because I was too lazy to make dough. I also made fish tacos for dinner, with the fish strips baked instead of fried.

Jex helped out. He coated all the fish strips. =)

The good husband

I baked chocolate chip cookies!

And chocolate chip-banana muffins!

I cooked a lot of other stuff, but didn't get to take photos of them.

During my visit I mostly stayed in the apartment because (1) I am lazy and (2) it was always too sunny. While sun-loving people were out basking in the glory of the sun I, the weird sunlight-sensitive Asian, would be in the air conditioned apartment surfing the internet or doing laundry while catching up on TV series episodes. The only times I went out by myself was when I went to the supermarket (I love Woolworths!) and when I went shopping at the outlet mall (and it rained o_O) The highlight of my trip was when we went to the Caversham Wildlife Park.

Take note of the stops that the train will take. Trains have different stopping patterns so you might miss your stop.

We took the train and a bus to get to the park. It's pretty easy to navigate their train system and their trains are so spacious and clean.

We rode the train from Perth Midland station all the way to Bassendean.

Bus stop sign, which are both non-existent and useless in Manila

We waited at bus stand 3 for either bus 955 or 956. According to the Caversham Wildlife Park website either one passes by the Whiteman Park entrance along Lord Street. We still asked the bus driver, just to be sure. We got off at the Lord St Before Youle-dean Rd bus stop (thank you phone GPS.)

The wildlife park is actually inside Whiteman Park, which is a really really huge park. Aside from the Caversham Wildlife Park it also has the Tractor Museum of Western Australia and the Woodland Reserve.

When we got there we weren't sure how to get to the wildlife park itself so we started walking. I think we read somewhere online that we could walk to Caversham from the entrance of Whiteman Park. There weren't a lot of signs to guide us so we kept to the main road. After around twenty minutes of walking we were realizing that Caversham wasn't as near as the instructions we read online said. I checked Google Maps and it said walking would take 23 minutes. Then I saw Caversham was more than a kilometer and a half away from the entrance of Whiteman Park! We were probably already more than halfway there so we just kept going. Later we found out that you could call for a shuttle bus from the entrance of Whiteman Park. We took the shuttle bus on our way out of the park, haha.

We didn't see any of these along the way, though

I found the long walk through the park nice, though, despite the heat of the sun, because I got to take photos.

Almost there!

Upon paying for the entrance fee and getting a park map we went straight for the kangaroo enclosure. The enclosure is actually a really big area fenced off from the rest of the park where kangaroos roam freely. You will literally be among kangaroos and you can pet and feed them!

Upon entering the enclosure this little guy immediately approached us.

The kangaroos are so used to people feeding them that they approach people because they know they'll be fed.

Begging for food from one of the keepers.

Me feeding an albino kangaroo ^_^

Jex had a lot of fans

After the kangaroo enclosure we walked around a bit and then headed to the Farm Show. We didn't catch the beginning of the show but Jex says the speaker actually makes his entrance on a horse, riding towards the demo area from the pasture on the background. That would have been epic to see.

The shearing machine

The speaker demonstrates how the sheep are herded using the sheepdog and proceeds onto the explanation of shearing sheep. He also actually shears a sheep in front of you.

The manual way of shearing makes use of blade shears

The mechanical shearer has a support belt for the shearer to prevent lower back injuries

The proper position of the sheep for shearing. The sheep does not struggle in this position.

All done!

Shearing of sheep needs to be done at least once a year or else the fleece becomes too heavy, soiled and unhealthy. It is done according to the season, typically during warm weather since the sheep need their fleece during colder seasons.

Fleece being prepared for skirting

After shearing the fleece needs to be checked and separated. Different parts of the fleece are sorted depending on the part of the sheep it was from. Parts of the fleece that usually come into contact with the ground are darker in color and will be used in a different way compared to those that come from the sheep's back.

Skirting the fleece

After the shearing demonstration the speaker showed us a traditional whip and explained how it worked. He asked for a volunteer from the audience who wanted to try cracking the whip. I was too shy to volunteer. During Jex's trip to Caversham before he was the one who volunteered and he said that he made a sad "whoop" sound with the whip instead of the usual "wha-pack".

A cute Aussie guy from the audience volunteered to crack the whip

The audience was a bit small comprising of probably less than twenty people. The kids were too shy and didn't want to come up when they asked for kid volunteers for an activity. So, instead, the adults participated in the baby goat feeding contest. Not surprisingly the smallest goat from the group finished its milk last.

They also explained and demonstrated how cows are manually milked. They allowed people to try it out as well. I got to try it and I never knew that a single squirt only releases a small amount of milk. How tedious!

After the farm show we went around the park more and looked at the other animals.

Llama stare down

Jex pets a mellow goat

Goats chilling

Goat likes his pedestal

Ostrich gives us a graceful bow

An angry rabbit

The park has an attraction called Meet the Wombat & Friends which runs at different times throughout the day. The wombat's friends include different types of birds, wallabies, and possums.

Tawny frogmouth - it looks pissed or bored...or both

Kookaburra!

I've finally seen a real kookaburra after years of hearing about it from this really old Globe commercial:

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Golden brushtail possum

Then it was time to meet the wombat! Wombats are muscular marsupials that are native to Australia.

Yes, I did say muscular. Look at that thing! That is not fat, people, that is muscle!

Next it was time to see the koalas!

Sleeping koala

Koalas are asleep for around 16-18 hours a day and their diet comprises mostly of eucalyptus leaves. The carer at the koala enclosure warned us not to touch the eucalyptus leaves because once touched the koalas won't eat them. We were only allowed to touch a certain part of the koala and only a particular one. I think you're not supposed to just handle any of them because it causes them stress.

I don't know if this is awake or asleep

Photo with a koala, yay!

Dingoes ate my baby

We had trouble finding the dingo enclosure and wandered around the park a bit, but we eventually found it. I've never seen a dingo, not even from a picture, so I was surprised to find that they looked just like regular dogs because I was expecting them to look more like wolves. Though the dingoes in the park look like they're tamed by the carer they are still wild animals and handling must still include caution. Dingoes are apex predators and those found in the wild prey on sheep, kangaroos, rabbits, and rats.

After seeing the dingoes we decided to head home. We had lunch at the park while waiting for the shuttle bus to pick us up and bring us to the gate. We took the same bus and train route on the way home. When we got back to the apartment I had to clean my rubber shoes because I didn't realize I stepped on a lot of kangaroo poop at the park. It took a lot of cotton buds because my shoes had a lot of small crevices. Overall it was a really nice trip to and I'd recommend visiting the park to anyone who visits Perth.

Cute koala metal gate