Day 2 – Rockingham/Mandurah
Picture the globe in your hand. Squeeze that sphere tightly, to scrunch it up like an exercise ball. The world is not very big.
At least it seems that way so far here in Perth, where KFC, Dominoes, Subway, McDonald’s, Century 21, Target and other familiar brands greet us on the streets. (Not to mention Gucci, Prada and the others I can’t afford in any currency!)
Leo and I began our first official day in Australia with absolutely no plans. After passing out at 7 p.m., we seemed to have corrected enough of our jeg lag to get up. Thus slightly more coherent, we wandered downstairs in our hostel, seeking the promised free breakfast. I’d eaten a gamut of such free hostel breakfasts while backpacking in Europe in 2004: Everything from a hot full English meal of blood sausgage, eggs, bacon and beans served in a cafteria to a moldy piece of bread handed over upon check-in.
Still, I a bit surprised that “breakfast” meant free slices of bread to toast, along with butter, strawberry jam and marmalade. You had to put down a deposit on a kitchen kit of a plate, knife, fork, spoon, cup and bowl. The rest was on your own, with coolers and other cooking pans provided. I guess we’ll hit the grocery next time to grab some milk.
Munching on our free toast, we perused our two Australia tour books for inspiration. Based on our walking tour Thursday, Perth is not the most interesting city in the world. So we opted to use the train, traveling south a bit to Rockingham.
The beautiful part about not planning every detail is that you never know what you’ll get.
Rockingham is a sleepy beach town. Other than landscape and some slight differences in residential architecture, the town is similar to Carolina Beach: more residents and fewer tourists, especially in the off-season. (It’s early spring here.) Blue-green bays and perfectly blue skies greeted us.
But far more exciting than the town itself was the beauty we found at Penguin Island. This island off the western coast is the largest breeding grounds in Australia/New Zealand for Little Penguins, a specific species of penguins with a bluish hue. We took a five-minute ferry ride across to check it out. If not having a plan is gambling, this was a roll of double sixes. We got to watch a nature preserve specialist feed penguins. We also took the 2km walk around the island, which featured an overlook of the Indian Ocean and the surrounding bays. And then, waiting for the next ferry, we sat and realaxed in this eden for about 40 minutes.
It was perfect. We couldn’t have planned it better.
After a quick lunch in Rockingham — P.S. Eating out in Australia is ridiculously expensive. A$8.50 for a morning muffin and bottle of Coke! — we hopped back on the train and headed slightly farther south to Mandurah.
The odd part about not planning every detail is that you never know what you’re going to get.
We took the bus around town, as we had in Rockingham, sort of guessing where the “good part” by the water was. But there just wasn’t much. Houses, some beach, and more houses. We tried the bus again, venturing farther north, to a section that seemed to be the tourist spot. We hoped to find a beer with a view. Instead, there was ONE tiny pub with bars on the windows, amid a slightly upscale subdivision. very odd.
So instead of a bay-view beer, we returned to Perth for dinner.
For better or worse, I think our first official day here turned out very well.
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