King's Park.

I came back up to Albany on the bus yesterday. Just driving six hours north has brought me into an area with much nicer weather. Even though I've been caught in the rain about three times today, it's much warmer and that is such a relief. Tomorrow I fly to Alice Springs and I can't wait to wear some of my summer clothes.

Last night I met my friend Katy. She works in the sustainability department of one of the huge mining companies. Sort of an interesting job. She took me out for dinner at a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Leederville, a section of Perth. I had Sapporo and I think the Guelph variety is just as good as the Japanese one.

This morning I got up and headed out to see King's Park. I'm really glad I had the chance to visit because it is an incredible botanical garden. There were a lot of people there, but it's huge, so it didn't seem crowded at all. It's within walking distance of the CBD, but they have free buses everywhere here anyway. I walked out to it, then caught the bus back into the city.

The view from the park is great. It's at the top of Mt. Eliza, also known as Kaarta gar-up (hill water place in language of the Nyoongar people). The hill has been used as a meeting place by the Aboriginal people for over 40,000 years. From various points you can see all over the city and right out to the Darling Range, which are the granite mountains bordering Perth. From the first look-out I could see the Perth Conference and Exhibition Centre, where I attended the conference. It's the saddle-shaped building right on the edge of the harbour.


One of the first flowers I saw in the park was a Kangaroo Paw. This was one thing that I really wanted to see during my trip. There are 12 species and they all live in South Western Australia. I was worried that I wasn't going to see one because we never came across one in the wild, but there are a lot of them in captivity in King's Park.


These flowers are called Scented Boronia. They are native to WA and are produced commercially for use in perfumes and things. They are the most beautifully scented flowers I have ever smelled. They have huge gardens of them and they smell like roses and strawberries and are just wonderful.


This is what happens if a grasstree doesn't get burned. It grows into a huge, fat grasstree.


One of my favourite parts of the park was the elevated bridge through the eucalypt forests. It was so neat to see the tops of all these trees.


From one of the other look-outs I could see the Swan Brewery. They make great beer.


There are art installations all throughout the park. This was a bronze book, with the pages blowing across the rocks in the wind. At the bottom the pages turn into leaves.


I saw a few birds that I could identify in the park. I'm pretty sure this is Johnny Twitchytail (or Willy Wagtail, for all you purists). I also saw Black Cockatoo, ring-necked parrots, and woodducks. The cockatoo was a new one for me. I new it wasn't Carnaby's because they only live down near Perth then I found a sign about the Black Cockatoos and new what it was.


Pink Everlastings.


Me with one of the species of Kangaroo Paw. Just so you can see how tall some of them are. There were also yellow ones that were much taller than me.


Tonight I'm heading to Katy's capoeira performance. It's a type of martial arts dance that the slaves in Brazil used in order to maintain their fighting skills. I saw it on one of the dance reality shows once and it looks pretty cool. I think she also drums. It's down in Freo, so I'm also going to go for a walk along the ocean. Tomorrow I catch my flight to Alice Springs at noon. O, and Leah, Katy's three guy neighbours play bike polo in the street! I saw them out practicing this afternoon.

Talk to you later, Love Cass