My stay in Perth with the van Eyk family was as relaxing as any I have had on my tour thus far…
Michelle and John ensured that I had everything I needed, and were always on hand with advice on what to do and what to see in Perth…
They introduced me to many of their South African and Zimbabwean friends and together we enjoyed a number of evenings, chatting about “the good old days” and the way their lives had changed for the better once they had settled in Australia…
At Grant and Serena's home, I was introduced to many of John and Michelle's friends...
With almost five days on my hands before the bike would be ready, I decided to fly to Bali for a week, and with Michelle following me into the city, I dropped the R1200R off at BMW on Saturday morning, and a few hours later was winging my way north…
The weather in Bali was a little iffy, with a few days of overcast and damp weather… But seeing Patricia again, and meeting her sister Donna, more than made up for this… We spent a lively few days together, either escorting Donna around Ubud, or visiting friends who welcomed me back “home”…!! The guys at the taxi stand cracked the usual jokes, reminding me that Bali had a hold on me that wouldn’t let go…!!
But all too soon the week that I spent there was over, and after another round of emotion goodbyes, I flew back to Perth to resume my ride around Australia…
Breakfast with a view... North Beach, Perth.
I arrived at Perth International at 11.00 pm, and was taken aback by how much colder it was here than it had been in Bali… Michelle’s daughter Kayleigh, and a friend, flew in from Bali a few hours after I landed, and together we took a taxi back home, arriving in Kallaroo at 3.30 am…
I was up a few hours later, preparing to leave for town to collect the Big Fella…
On the way there, Michelle and I stopped in North Beach, and enjoyed a late breakfast while watching the surfers just offshore…
From there we drove out to Kings Park, a sprawling public park up on a ridge above the city… From there, I could see Perth and the Swan River laid out before me; families spreading blankets and unpacking picnic baskets; and hordes of tourists strolling along the grassy banks to snap photos of the city below us…
Framed by towering Eucalyptus Trees, the Perth CBD and the Swan River, as seen from Kings Park...
The midday sun hides the Eternal Flame that burns in the War Memorial's water feature...
Australia has a proud heritage of supporting the cause of peace around the world...and perhaps getting into scraps that were best left to others to sort out...!!
A large portion of the park is devoted to various war memorials, and I wandered over to take a few quiet moments to pay my respects to the fallen…
I have stopped to do this in many countries, and it has never mattered to me which country I am in, or the cause the soldiers had fought and died for, but some where in my core lies a respect for any person who had laid down their lives in the service of their country…
Perhaps the fact that many of them neither cared for, nor understood the reasons they found themselves in the line of fire, is what resonates most strongly within me… Whatever the case, I find myself drawn to recognise their sacrifice…
Perth is the capital of Western Australia, and almost 70% of the state’s population of a little over two and a half million people, live here in the city… This being Australia’s largest state, it just goes to show how sparsely populated the remainder of Western Australia is…!!
Ready for the open road after his service, the Big Fella also sports a new nose...!!
It is one of the cleanest cities I have been in, with hardly a scrap of litter to be found anywhere… On the whole, so far Australia is probably the most litter-free country I have ever visited…!!
Perth has been voted the 8th best “Livable City” in the world by the Economist Magazine… It is also the fastest growing city in Australia, as well as the country’s fourth largest…
The lawns in the public parks, and there are dozens of them, all look as though they have been freshly mowed and swept free of leaves and broken branches… It is all rather pristine… Maybe too much so…!!
But rather that than the mess on display in so many other countries…
In many ways, I am reminded of South Africa more than thirty years ago, where kids played on the sidewalks, rode their bicycles on the streets in their neighborhoods, and parents did not have to worry too much about their safety…
(Unless of course you lived anywhere close to where I did…!! My friend’s parents never quite knew if their kids were going to return home with a snake-bite, a black eye, or a broken bone or two, when out “playing with that Borrageiro boy”…!!)
Beautiful beaches run almost the length of Perth, and with the city being as long and narrow as it is, that’s a lot of beaches…!! Almost forty kilometres worth…!!
The city also has the most boats per capita, than any other city in the world…!! Small boat harbours and yacht basins dot the coast, as well as the banks of the Swan River… Water sports feature big on the average residents leisure list…!!
At Auto Classic, we found the Big Fella parked outside, and ready to go… I was still unsure about buying new tyres to carry across the Nullarbor…
Loading another 15 to 20 kilos onto the bike would not only weigh it down even further, but also increase the wear on the existing tyres… In the end, I reluctantly forked over another A$390, and tied them onto the bike and then rode back to Kallaroo..
Even my boots received some TLC and a new set of teeth...!!
Reminders of home... The pool, the braai area... and sunny skies of course...!!
I spent the afternoon going over my kit, and even got the dubbin out and surprised the hell out of my boots by giving them a thorough cleaning and attaching the new toe guards that I had carried for over 20 months…!!
I sorted through the various receipts and invoices I had been lugging around, tossed most of them away, and kept the others to send home in my next “post drop”…
John and I discussed his enormous collection of music, which he had collected and catalogued for the past fifteen years…
He has made elaborate play-lists to suit any type of party or mood, and judging from the meticulous way in which he has set them up, it is more a labour of love than just a passion…!!
His collection of music stretches back to the 50’s and 60’s, and reminded me of the records my folks used to play at parties they hosted… I remember the “beehive” hairstyle my mother wore, and my father’s slicked back hair… Days long ago and far away…But good days, all…!!
On my last evening in Perth, John and Michelle treated me to drinks and dinner at Hillary’s Boat Harbour… We sat outside on the open deck of the Breakwater Restaurant, and watched the sun set behind a bank of low cloud…
On my last night in Perth, Michelle and John took me to the Breakwater restaurant at Hillary's Boat Harbour, where we enjoyed sun-downers, followed by dinner...
Uninvited, a couple of young Indian guys sat down at our table and began chatting about cricket, South Africa (which both of them had visited during the last cricket World Cup held there…) and spices… How spices came into the conversation, heaven only knows, but the one guy spent the better part of half an hour describing how involved the spice trade in India was, and how little Westerners knew about ” a true curry”…!! Indeedy and all…!!
We eventually excused ourselves to have dinner on our own at a little restaurant nearby, and enjoyed a quiet meal together… Back home, Michelle very kindly put together a few sandwiches and fruit for me to take along on my ride the following day…
“And where exactly do you think I will fit all this…??” I asked, eye-ing the mounting pile on the kitchen sideboard…
“I’m sure you’ll find a place…!!” she said in her usual sweet manner, “You can’t ride on an empty stomach…!!”
And that settled that…!! I carried the pile back to my room, and began re-arranging the items in my tank bag to accommodate two apples, two large bananas, two sandwiches and a container of chicken pieces from the roast we had enjoyed the evening before…!! Not only was this enough for “pad-kos”, but it also served as dinner the following evening, in a cold and blustery Walpole…!!
Proud parents and their girls...!! Janine, Roxanne, John, Kayleigh and Michelle van Eyk... As tight-knit a family as you'll ever find...!!
There were lots of hugs when I left Perth…!!Even though I had spent barely a few days in their company, it felt as though I had known the van Eyk’s a lot longer than that… Another lasting friendship had been built, one of many that have made this journey so fulfilling for me…
I remain extremely appreciative of the wonderful spirit in which the van Eyk’s received me into their home, and made me feel part of the family… (I am “collecting” families as I go, as you can see…!!) John and Michelle, and their daughters, Roxanne, Kayleigh and Janine, made me feel a sense of “belonging”, for which I am also most grateful, and I can only hope that one day I can return the favour…
With a final wave and good wishes to all, I left Perth and headed south…
©GBWT 2011
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