Google maps are incredible. You can arrive in an unfamiliar city and find your way to anywhere. You’re guided in the most polite manner to your destination – or not! So it was that after a five and a half hour bumpy cramped flight, and being fobbed off with an inferior car from Hertz from the one we booked, Joanna, our silver-tongued Google Guide got us completely lost. The reason was, and still is, that a good percentage of the city of Perth is undergoing transformation – the biggest project of all being the reclamation of the river back from once – reclaimed land! So roadworks galore took Joanna by surprise.However, we eventually made it to our downtown hotel where we were to meet with our swapees from Kent, like ships that pass in the night. We spent two days in the passing, after which Peter took Alison and Philip to the Airport to continue their Australian discovery and fly to Sydney. A delightful couple, now firm friends, we spent much time together over drinks, dinners, breakfasts and, in Peter’s case, a day on the golf course.

It’s some years since we were in Perth, and it’s still a lovely place, nestled on the banks of the Swan river. On Monday we went to meet a couple, Peggy and Peter, who we had met on our Vietnam and Cambodian trip in January, and then went out to dinner with them. The next day we re- based to Fremantle from where we eventually depart Australian shores on our QM2 cruise to Cape Town. We’ll get up early to watch Her Majesty slip into the harbour at dawn.

But on Monday night we met up with the many members of Clan Stewart, our oldest and dearest friends from way back in Broadstairs. They are in the throes of moving house as it would happen (bad timing, we say, Ian and Dorothy!), so we had decided to keep a low profile until then. It was lovely for us to recount old times back in the Mother country, and see how their grandchildren had developed into fine young things. And now their whole family is together again on the other side of the world.

Of course we did the tourist bit. A lunch cruise down the Swan river to Perth and back, even though, as Peter commented after we’d booked and paid, we’ll be having breakfast, lunch and dinner afloat for the next sixteen days! Overall our lasting impressions of Perth and surrounds is sadly one of being grossly overpriced compared with Queensland, and not very good value for money. That disappointed us – we all know that the WA mining boom has brought huge wealth to this part of Australia, but that has now slowed down, leaving in its wake inflated prices for everyone, including tourists, whether in the mining industry or not.

Our next blog will be from the sun deck, no doubt. So here’s hoping for calm seas and plain sailing!

Sent from my iPad. Rebecca S Mason