Welcome to Western Australia

We're writing to you from beautiful Fremantle in Western Australia where we have been living for the last few months. It has been a while since our last post so here's a quick update of what we have been up to. It was just before our return home for Christmas and it was certainly strange to land in London to 5C temperatures compared to the nice 30C we had been used to in Indonesia. We had a busy few weeks starting off with my birthday where we went on a seaside walk with Roxy dog and then a few days later it was Christmas which we spent enjoying quality family time, eating until we burst and drinking lots of wine! It was a fast paced month with our days filled with fun adventures like ice skating and horse riding with my nieces, a fun trip to Newquay with Josh's parents as well as relaxed days at home walking dogs, seeing family or catching up with friends. Eventually it was time for our flight over to Western Australia which was with a mixture of emotions, but we were certainly keen for some sunshine again. We had three separate flights to catch and it quickly started to feel like we would be hopping on and off planes forever, but finally we touched down in Perth managing to see the pink sunset from the plane window. Jet lag didn't hit us too hard and we were able to recover in the most spacious Airbnb that, by accident, we had all to ourselves. It was situated in the suburbs of Fremantle which is a beautiful seaside city, full of friendly people and lovely beaches, that we were hoping was going to be a great place to stay for the next few months!

We really have settled into our life in Fremantle and have been enjoying the gorgeous sunny days and relaxed atmosphere. The first week we arrived we put a lot of effort into handing out CVs and viewing potential house shares. Our hard work proved to pay off as we found jobs in a couple of bars and a room in a cute town house right in the centre of Freo, literally 20 steps away from the main street. Luckily we live and work with the nicest people so we instantly felt right at home in this quiet city by the coast.  There are lots of places to visit here from museums to breweries so our days off are full of things to do, but Freo is quite a sleepy place so it is also good for relaxing with a beer. The town is also full of boutique shops, local cafes and great markets so it makes a lovely place for tourists and gives the area a strong sense of community. On Australia Day we made the decision to go and join the invasion day rally, in support of the Aboriginal community with changing the date of this celebration from the day they were invaded. The march was full of passion, and didn't detract from seeing other Australians very happy and having fun celebrating the place they call home, it just would be nice for it to be on another day! Fremantle cancelled the fireworks on Australia Day in support of Aboriginal wishes and held a free festival called One Day which allowed the locals a chance to have fun and celebrate Australian culture. This epitomises the kind of place that Fremantle is and we quickly realised that it is a somewhere we are very happy to call home.

A significant part of our time in Freo has been visiting the truly stunning beaches in the area. This side of Australia hits the Indian Ocean and is gifted with some wonderful coastline that never seems to end, plus we are on the West so it lucks out with beachside sunsets. Our favourite beach to visit is the South Freo Dog Beach, I'm sure you can guess why, where there are always so many happy pups enjoying one of the nicest beaches we've ever seen. Port, Cottesloe, Scarborough and Coogee are equally as gorgeous with white sand, bright blue ocean and they go on for miles! Western Australia seems to have a monopoly on beautiful beaches, as you can see with all these pretty pictures, and it's not hard to find somewhere new to laze for a few hours. Another addition to our life has been the handsome pup you can see below called Amos who we met through a dog sitting app. We met with Amos' owners who have turned out to be so helpful and kind, and we now take him to the beach a few times a week. He likes nothing more than walkies on the beach with his ball, then a big cuddle afterwards whilst he rubs his ears on your leg trying to get dry. It has also been great making friends with people here from educational days out to the Femantle Prison, to partying in the city and having cocktails in the high street. Fremantle is going to be one of those places we will never forget and can already see ourselves coming back for a visit.

It has taken so long to get this post together because we've been working hard in order to get ourselves ready for our roadtrip North. Our plans are to drive up the West Coast to Darwin which meant we'd need a slightly better car than what we had previously. We decided on a Nissan X-Trail complete with off-road tyres and a pretty badass stereo, a very important feature. Instead of sleeping in the car like our previous roadtrip, we have got a pretty spacious rooftop tent and lots of useful camping gear so our journey will be as comfortable as we can make it. This is all thanks to Josh who is so excited about kitting the car out and making sure we have everything we need, he is a dream! There are a few big trips we want to make whilst settled in Fremantle but we decided the first was going to be down to Bremer Bay for a boat tour of a lifetime. We took a few days off work and drove for 5 hours down to the south coast which was a beautiful meander through the bush, complete with skippy sightings and even a bandicoot! We arrived in Bremer in time to go offroad down to a couple of beaches which were just as unbelievably lovely as the others we had seen in WA. It was soon time to make our way over to the bush camp we were staying in and after bumping along a 5km dirt track we made it. The stars were glistening above us as we fell asleep in our rooftop tent to the sounds of animals in the trees, unfortunately including lots of horseflies!

We woke up nice and early as we got ourselves ready to take the day by the horns. We were going on a boat trip to visit the Bremer Canyon, a spot in the ocean rich in zooplankton due to its topography and therefore a place with an abundance of fish, giant squid and whales. We had made the journey to see one animal in particular and that was the Killer Whale which is notoriously hard to find elsewhere due to the vast distances they travel. They are a true apex predator full of intelligence and playful in nature so it was thrilling to think we had the opportunity to see them very soon. We boarded the research vessel, Naturaliste Charters, that was taking us out to this plentiful part of the ocean. They began doing tourist trips a few years ago to help stimulate their research further, which meant we were lucky to have a marine biologist to answer all our questions and lots of photographers on board. We headed out on a sunny day bumping our way through some pretty big swell, but luckily this tough boat was built to be a rescue vessel so it was nice and comfortable. The announcement came that we had got to the canyon and we all excitedly looked around waiting for some action. Unfortunately on this day we didn't get an Orca sighting, which is incredibly rare. We ended up seeing hundreds of Pilot Whales, which was still phenomenal as we watched their cute flat faces pop out of the waves. We learnt that Killer Whales dislike the Pilot Whales because they make such high pitched noises and roam in very large groups which means they don't predate them. This could have caused the Orcas to head further away from the canyon on this day to find their usual prey of squid or Beaked Whales. It was a fantastic experience but due to us not seeing the main attraction we were offered another chance to head out into the blue, which of course we jumped at.

We boarded the boat the next day, preparing ourselves for bumpy ride out there and hoping today we would be a bit luckier. It turned out to be the best decision as that morning whilst we tucked into banana bread, two pods of Orcas appeared right next to our boat. The team were very excited as they spotted a male never seen in the canyon before with a huge dorsal fin, they can be 1.8m high! We then headed over to a resident pod who came unbelievably close to the boat and we watched them surfacing for hours as they cruised along. There were even some tiny calves which jumped through the waves as the Albatross swooped by following the formation. Killer Whales are actually Dolphins and you can see this distinction by their behaviour and unbelievable intelligence. We watched as the calves got distracted by a jellyfish and nudged it to each other with their noses, before being told by mum to hurry up and not get left behind. After a few hours it was time to leave the pod which was probably a good idea as we had been getting roasted by the sun, I managed to burn my bottom lip which was a horrendous new experience! Still, it was a dream come true to see these fierce, intelligent creatures where they belong and something we'll never forget. We arrived back on dry land and cruised over to our beach front campsite near Albany, setting up the tent in darkness and falling asleep to the sound of the waves. This trip made us even more excited to travel up the coast to see what more Western Australia has to offer, but for now we're enjoying our time in Fremantle watching the gorgeous sunsets by the beach.