Pretty in Perth

We always knew we would have a good time at the Godden's, but we did not fully realise how much. We are beginning to realise that none of us are in a hurry to go out and explore all the potential of Perth outside of our Gooseberry paradise.

The slippery dip, you don't see these any more around Victoria!

Michelle and Andy bought this piece of land about 15 years ago. It was a blank canvas, so everything that you see has been planted by them. They have every fruit tree you can imagine, vegetables and flowers. They spent some time living in Indonesia and have bought back with them gorgeous pieces of furniture and garden ornaments that all help make this home what it is today.

Beautiful nature shots from their garden.

Yes, kid paradise extends to indoors where there are all the toys the boys have been missing.

Dinner time once more, life is pretty good!

This morning, after collecting our freshly serviced car, much to the kids disappointment, we do manage to leave paradise to take a drive around the city of Perth. Would you believe all 3 kids fell asleep and missed the drive completely!!!

This is looking back at the city from the entrance to Kings Park.

We were so excited when we spotted this tree on the left hand side of the picture. A Boab tree! Usually only found in the northern parts of WA and emblematic of the Kimberley region, it is one of our favourite trees.

Once the kids awoke and accepted that we would be returning to paradise at some point, we enjoyed a lovely stroll through Kings Park. This picture is taken in front of the Women's Garden. On the path you can see to the left of the picture are plaques within the paving. We found one from the Jewish Community Council of Western Australia.

This is a fairly new addition to the park, a walk in the treetops that travels about 620 metres.

Yes, this is our car. Isn't it looking rather spiffy.We collected it this afternoon after receiving a rather large service with the added bonus of a clean. We think they do this to distract from the obscenely large service bill we had to pay. It worked!!

We did divert from our touring to visit some friends who were staying in a caravan park about 10klms from the city. Linda realised that she had left a book and some paperwork in a friends car, perhaps an accident, perhaps a ploy to make sure we got to see them once more!!! Please meet Sue and Di, our new/old friends. We first met these lovely ladies in Broome and were very excited to discover they are from Melbourne and, when in town, they do not live very far away from us at all.

Please meet Ruby, who we also  met in Broome. Many hours have been spent in pools and on jumping pillows together. Ruby's family also come from Victoria and looooove 4 wheel driving. 

Please meet Ruby's parents, Nads and Tony. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your adventure, stay safe and we very much look forward to sharing some more adventures with you. Wish we were allowed to drive on the beach in Victoria!!!!

After a swim, a chat and a few beers, we continued on our way. We can still not get enough of the incredible western sunsets. Can you blame us?

Prior to going on this trip of ours, Robbie had always said that Perth was the only other city that he could see himself living in. We were looking forward to seeing whether, after all we have seen and done, he still felt the same, noting that his last visit to Perth was many moons ago. Well, Robbie was not disappointed, nor Linda. After only a few days we both feel very relaxed and we are being extremely spoilt in our piece of paradise!