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Ray and I started our day with our regular if not daily, 7.2km walk/run. We normally saw Chris and Vicki on our morning circuit, but not today. we missed our competitive timings. I hope they found somewhere lovely to exercise this morning while they inched their way home towards Melbourne and the end of their trip.
We packed up, loaded up on groceries and headed to Lake Clifton. We have been in Perth city for 11 nights. We could very easily stay longer as we haven’t done half of the things we had earmarked to do while we were here. We LOVE Perth. The people are so friendly, there is no rushing around like our home city of Melbourne and the weather is so much more dependable and infinitely nicer over here in the West. Even though we have been caught in the middle of a heat wave, the cool afternoon breezes really make a difference. Perth doesn’t have the population that Melbourne does and it really stands out in public places. There is always a parking spot, always an available toilet and rarely a queue for service. Even during busy holiday times.
We left Perth knowing we could always pop back and visit from our next stop because we were only going to be about 100km away, just a small hop, skip and jump to finish our exploration of the Perth surrounds.
Lake Clifton is described as a “sleepy hollow” and that’s exactly what we found. It was 41 degrees when we arrived and we found a green grassy semi-shaded site waiting for us. As a bonus we are next to some travellers, Russell and Noelene, we met at Lake Argyle (where the infinity pool was). This is such a bonus because we can catch up on our travels since the last time we saw them. The owners were so kind and friendly and even came back an hour or so after we arrived to see how we had settled in. We haven’t had this kind of service before. We will spend 3 weeks here exploring the region before moving further South.
We set up, even putting up the annexe for extra room, and then drove into Mandurah. We are about 32km away. Mandurah is a bustling, happening town and Ray commented that this is the place that he wants to live in . Unfortunately, he would need to find someone to keep him, as the houses are worth on average about 5 million dollars. The houses built on the estuary have a covenant that the cost of the house must be at least double the cost of the land price. The average block is $1.5 million.
We drove around looking with our mouths hanging open. It seemed very much like Surfers Paradise with lots of people sunning themselves in the park and half-clad bodies strolling along the edge of the water, and then we suddenly realised why Perth seemed so quiet: The whole population was here in Mandurah on the foreshore with us. We were very glad to be staying out of town in our “sleepy hollow “.
Aaron declared himself ready to emancipate himself from us when he saw a red “P” plate driver in an Audi TT worth about $80k new. To add to that, red “P” plate drivers are 17 years old in WA.
Mandurah is certainly the playground for the rich in WA, regardless of their age.