Perth 2015 Day 4 – Caversham Wildlife Park and King’s Park

The sun rays peeked into the gap between the curtains and the wall and I woke up quickly to close it up further in order not to wake up the baby. I proceeded to the living room and welcomed the sight that we had wished since the day of arrival – clear skies. That meant a beautiful sunrise as well. Shot some photos before going back to bed.

Sunrise view from our windows.
Sunrise view from our windows.

Didn’t really sleep long before I got up and started preparing baby K’s pasta for the day. Learning from the previous day, I prepared all the ingredients quickly and started to cook them too. Also, make used of the dishwasher to make cleaning easier.

Wife woke up next while baby K continued to snooze. We got ready whenever possible and ate our cold sandwiches bought from the day before. When baby K woke, it was only just the bathing required and then we were good to go. Today was the earliest that we left the hotel, at about 11am.

Our destination for today was Caversham wildlife park, at swan valley. It was a 30mins drive but was pretty straight forward. The park was actually located within a village that had a couple of other attractions such as museum. It was also quite a distance from the main road, almost 3km after turning in.

Caversham Wildlife Park.
Caversham Wildlife Park.

There were quite a number of carparks but those nearer to the entrance were full. Parked the next nearest one available and bought the 2 tickets for $26 each.

The impression of the exhibits here was that there were many birds. Maybe we have seen too many of these sanctuaries so it didn’t impressed. What was different were probably the animal farm show that was pretty good. It showcased sheep herding by sheep dogs, wool shearing, cracking the whip and milking the cow. There was another koala photo taking exhibit that showed a number of them sleeping and of easy location for photos. Then there was meeting the other animals in a huge barn where there was a quoll, possum, some birds, a python and main star, a wombat, for photos.

Wallaby drinking
Wallaby drinking
Bats.
Bats.
Large lizard.
Large lizard.
Some colourful bird.
Some colourful bird.
Snake drinking water.
Snake drinking water.
White joey.
White joey.
Molly's farm.
Molly’s farm.
Donkey.
Donkey.
Young llamas.
Young llamas.
Pony.
Pony.
Petal the Buffalo.
Petal the Buffalo.
Petal.
Petal.
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Snoozing Koala.
Farm show about to start.
Farm show about to start.
Sheep shearing demonstration
Sheep shearing demonstration
Feeding a 2 weeks young lamb.
Bottle feeding a 2 weeks young lamb.
Milking cow.
Milking cow. Minty’s retired.
Meeting the friends of wombat.
Meeting the friends of wombat. Birds on stand in the distance.
Yellow Possum.
Yellow Possum.
Bettong
Bettong
Knocked out kangeroo.
Knocked out kangeroo.

I was wearing just a polo Tee thinking that the sun would hold up and the temperature would become warmer and nicer. It didn’t. In fact, it went the opposite and it got really cold. Luckily we did dressed the baby up with multiple layers. After taking some wefies with the free roaming kangaroos at the field, especially with a white colour one, we quickly left.

There weren’t anything to eat at the center itself so we went back to the car first, fed baby K while my wife got busy with expression before leaving for the only cafe in the area, Village cafe. Ordered All day brekkie and wife had a fish burger and we left with some cakes for possible picnic later.

Village Cafe.
Village Cafe.
All day Brekkie.
All day Brekkie.
Sea burger.
Sea burger.
Village cafe inside.
Village cafe inside.

Next stop was Kings park and I pumped gas enroute. Pumped once and the nozzle sprung back, so I thought it was full. After paying $16 for it, I only found the tank less than 3/4 and I had to return at least 3/4. Pumped again with the nozzle slightly withdrawn and it was another $17, this time it was full, more than I needed to return. Too bad.

Entering Perth City, the drizzle started to come again and we thought it was really bad luck that we couldn’t visit the park and have a picnic there. After reaching the carpark, the rain was still coming down. As the sun started to set, a rainbow came out over Perth city. It was not too bad to have that drizzle now it seemed.

Rainbow after the rain.
Rainbow after the rain.

We moved on to another carpark that had a better viewpoint of the riverside. While baby K was being fed in the car, I explored the area and taking photos of the war memorial that was there. After baby K was done, we went around again, without the rain and with the sunset giving a nice hue to the clouds, it was indeed a nice view to bring home for us.

King's Park and Botanical gardens.
King’s Park and Botanical gardens.
King's park.
King’s park.
War memorial.
War memorial.
Another memorial.
Another memorial.
View from the park.
View from the park.

Left after a short walk as it was really cold and then an easy 10mins drive back to the hotel. Unload the family first before going around to park the car. I was unable to buy parking tickets. Maybe it was Sunday.

We ordered in room dining to avoid thinking where to get dinner or how to cook one, it costed $71 for a chicken schnitzel and a duck confit. We cooked our own salmon leftover from baby K’s food preparation. Then it was the same routine plus the packing of everything including the purchases that we had for the trip.

In room dining of fish and duck.
In room dining of fish and duck.

Tried to sleep early but we couldn’t get baby K to do so. He fell from the bed after climbing over the pillow wall we made around him on the bed and bumped his head but was lucky that the carpet cushioned the impact. He wasn’t crying a lot so it seemed ok. Still concerned, we might get a brain scan once back.

Another sleeping at 12midnight routine, but it was going to be a early wake up call tomorrow as we would be heading home.

Escape plan to Perth August 2015

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Perth 2015:

Total duration 5D4N
Singapore is in the same time zone as Perth.
Flight time is 5hrs on Scoot from Singapore to Perth. Return flight on Qantas is 5hrs 20mins from Perth to Singapore

Afternoon flight on 6th August at 12:30pm and arrival in Perth at 5:25pm.
Return flight is on the 10th August at 12pm and arrival in Singapore at 5:20pm.

Day 1 Arrival at Perth
Day 2 Fremantle markets and Watertown
Day 3 Perth City
Day 4 Caversham Wildlife Park and King’s park
Day 5 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was to make full use of the super long golden jubilee weekend in celebrations of SG50. We chose to go south instead of north because it would be cooler in the south during this period. The available flights that were under 6hrs was to Perth and since we had’t been there before, this was the opportunity.

Budget nature: Highest rate of Sing vs Aussie dollars made trip of value.

Travelling during this period was expected to be expensive in terms of airfares. That was also the reason for us to travel in Scootbiz since there weren’t much difference ($100) between the economy with the add ons and the biz. Also, Qantas return provided a better timing with a slightly higher charge vs Scoot.

Buying stuff in Aussie was much easier on the pockets given the almost 1:1 exchange rate. With the TRS, buying stuff that allowed tax refund almost guarantee a 10% discount compared to Singapore.

Complexity: Perth was easy to get around in a car.

Driving in Perth was pretty straight forward since it was not a big city comparatively and far less people and cars. Parking was quite easy to find and multi-storey ones were available at the malls. Carparks were nonetheless expensive.