Sunday 29th October – Exeter University reunion

Broken sleep, but having turned in so early we still manged a reasonable night.  The alarm at 9am was a bit of a shock but hopefully this will help us turn the corner to beat the jet lag.

We’d arranged to be picked up by Simon and Aimee about 10am.  They arrived in the biggest bluest truck (or yute I should probably say) along with their children Edward and Molly.  I was in the same year as Simon at Exeter studying Biological Sciences between 1997-2000.  Aimee was in the year ahead of us, but we were all members of the university scuba club.  That was where their relationship began so they’ve been together for quite a while.  There aren’t many couples I know of from uni that are still happily together after all this time! And we hadn’t all met up since about 2001!  They emigrated to Oz in 2004 following some members of Simon’s family who were already living here.

It was a squeeze but Simon (the Simons referred to as ‘my Simon’ or ‘your Simon’ for the rest of the day!) and I hopped into the truck and we headed to the Swan Valley.  This is a wine region containing many wineries and bars.  We arrived at the Henley Brook pub as it opened at 11am, securing a premier table on the lawn.  Finally, the Australian weather turned up today and spring is here!  

Our prime table at the Henley Brook pub

Edward and Molly meeting the animals

Aimee’s Simon seemed to be on a mission to drink from one end of the bar to the other.  I had to hastily warn him that I no longer have my Uni stamina as far as drinking is concerned!  But we enjoyed sampling some of the local brews as recommended by the bar staff and caught up on each other’s lives over the last 16 years whilst sat in the sunshine. We had our first experience of the high price of living here – beer and food are not cheap – a pint will set you back 8-12 AUD (Aussie dollars) depending on strength, that’s between £6-£9 a pint, ouch!  Going ‘out out’ will have to be a rare treat during this stint of the trip!  The pub was surrounded by grassland containing horses and a mobile petting zoo arrived to offer something to help keep the kids occupied. 

This orphaned Joey was an extra special surprise

Simon watching Gilberts (the band not the horse)

A live band, Gilbert’s cover band, started at one.  Named after the pub’s horse (!), the musicians seemed unaware of how talented they were.  They play here every week and are a really tight unit playing a mixed set containing tracks from Stevie Wonder to Matchbox Twenty, one of my Simon’s favourites.  No matter how many horses or baby Joey’s there were, the kids became restless, so we tore ourselves away from the beer garden.  It wasn’t such a hardship seeing as the next stop was for chocolate and wine tasting!  Now mid-afternoon we were dropped back at our temporary residence. Saying farewell to the Joneses we had discussed the possibility of a camping trip down south of Perth next weekend. I really hope that it happens so that we can spend some more time with them before we head North. 

Please can we try some more?

Afternoon drinking had made us both feel dozy, but it would be dangerous to sit down this early in the day!  For a change, both Ken and Lisa were home, having both worked early shifts.  The four of us took the dogs over to the quarry for a leg stretch and then our hosts suggested an evening trip to the coast.  An unexpected treat for our day.  

A couple of shots of Mullaloo beach

An Ibis

About 20 minutes west was Mullaloo beach.  I took a brief wander down to the golden sands to get a couple of shots whilst the others ordered some coffees at Dome café and secured some outdoor seating. 

It was a glorious evening with not a cloud in the sky.  Instead of remaining there for the sunset, we headed further south to Hillary’s, a fashionable boat harbour containing numerous outlets, restaurants and bars.  The place to be seen in Perth.  The sun disappeared rapidly and the temperature dropped. We enjoyed some extremely rich and thick hot chocolates before returning to Edgewater. 

Sunset over Hillary's boat harbour

Discussions with all our friends today have made us consider some sights south of Perth that it would be lovely to see before heading north…. Maybe we do have time to squeeze these in??! I have been making copious notes in my smaller ‘Part II travel book’, you can’t remember all this stuff without writing it down somewhere!