Still in Perth, I'm starting to see how backpackers do it now - this internet cafe is wonderfully affordable. (Back in the day you disappeared when you traveled, now you're in regular contact with your friends back home, SMS'ing and e-mailing and blogging; is it just nostalgia that makes me think something is lost with all this, a sense of real stepping out and away from your life and culture, a real vulnerability and openness to the new?) And posting pics on the blog is easy as a charm. (Having said which, for some reason I can't see the pics on the blog after posting them; trust you can!) 
So here are a few more, from the city which prides itself on being the most remote capital in the world. Singapore is closer than Sydney, but not exactly close either. I'm looking forward to getting wet in the Indian Ocean this afternoon!
Perth's justly most visited destination is King's Park, a gorgeous botanical garden and park on the hill above Perth overlooking the river, which proudly shows its age - many of these trees were planted over a century ago, so tower most magnificently overhead.
I've missed the season of flowers, but you'd hardly know it, what with the many species of eucalyptus (this red one at the top seems to be getting decked out for Christmas, no?), banksia (which I'd always thought a South African plant, but apparently it's Australian - though it may be a survivor of the Gondwana flora which once spread over southern Africa, Antarctica, etc., too), 
kangaroo paws (which against the sun look like they were drawn by Keith Haring)...I've no idea how the formatting of these pictures is going, since for some reason I'm able to see the pictures as I post them but not when I open up the blog. Hope they're not all over each other. Tomorrow - perhaps - I should have some more tropical looking scenery for you!
Oh, and my title is "Like a backpacker (sort of)" because I splurged on a decent hotel last night, after three nights sleeping - or trying to sleep - in bus and train seats!
