Friday, February 1, 2013

Things to do around Perth, Western Australia

By Tim Ahern


Perth is the worlds most remote capital city - it's nearest neighbor is Adelaide (the capital of South Australia) is 2500km away. With a population of around 1.8 million people there are plenty of things provided for in town, but also within a short drive in most directions you can find even more to do. For this reason it is best that you get a car when visiting, in fact it is better to get a campervan or motorhome, this way you can drift from place to place as you see fit and spend the night wherever you want.

To the south of Perth is the famous Margaret River wine region. Known for it's delightful wines you can also indulge in beautiful food and amazing surf. There is even one beach there where stingrays come to the shore daily to feed on the left overs that fisherman throw away when they clean their fish. Standing knee deep and realtively still, you can have the stingrays glide past you like a cat as their flaps brush up against your legs. I've done it and I am still alive to tell the tale so don't worry. There's a sheep farm in Margaret River that has camping facilities with all the amenities you could want including a nice social communal kitchen and open fire which everyone gathers around at night. This place, along with all the good camping site around Australia can be found in Camps Australia book which is highly recommended (at time of writing Camps is up to version 7).

Only a couple of hours north of Perth is the well known sandstone stalagmite national park of The Pinnacles. Following the coast road, the Pinnacles are in close proximity to the town of Cervantes which is a great place to stay overnight. However, something to look out for on the way there, is the the township of Lancelin. This town in the home of dune surfing in Western Australia and sand 4WDriving. It is a great place to stop for a few hours and really tear up some energy. There are few shops in town that rent sand surfing boards on the cheap, it's best to only get one for a few hours as sand surfing can really burn energy. If you've got a 4WD you can drive right up to whicever dune you choose to surf, but if you've got a 2WD, it's probably best to park on the road outside and walk in. If you've got the 4WD it is also a great place to really let loose with it and really tear it up on the sand. Most of the area the sand is pretty solid so unless you are really doing crazy things you are unlikely to bogged. The sand boards are pretty much the same as snowboards and are pretty easy to master, but if you've never boarded before, you will find it even more fun as you innevitably find yourself tumbling down a sand dune rather than surfing it. Anyway, after you finished and are covered in sand it is only a short trip to the beach to wash it all off and continue on to Cervantes.

There are tons of things to try in Perth itself and Tourism Western Australia has recently produced a brand new promotional video clip featuring some of the stuff you can get up to there. There is a also a cool listing of things to do on Trip Advisor called "77 things to do in Perth" - as you might be able to guess, it lists, um, 77 things to do in Perth.

Perth and Western Australia are a beautiful and amazing part of Australia. It truly is massive and divergent in every manner so the ultimate way to see it is with a rented campervan or motorhome which allows you to determine your own schedule, stay where you wish, get up when you want and get going when you wish.




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