Hey, everyone! I honestly didn’t expect to be doing much of anything this past week, but ended up doing quite a lot. I visited Wireless Hill, the Blackwall Reach Cliffs, Cottesloe beach, Mullaroo beach, and Henrietta Rocks.
Wireless Hill
My friend Jason and I both had the day off, so we ended going on a little adventure to Wireless Hill and Blackwall Reach Cliffs. Jason and I had gone on a road trip up north to Kalbarri back in November – he’s certainly been the person I’ve explored the most with since being in Perth. He’s always up for an adventure, which has been great.
I had passed Wireless Hill a number of times while on the bus and was always curious to know what it was all about. Unfortunately, the park ended up being quite small with pretty basic trails. There was a cool lookout point where you could see the Swan River, though. There was also a large photograph of what the view looked like back in the mid 1900s. I should have taken a picture, but did not haha. Basically, no city skyline and hardly any buildings at all.
I think I would have enjoyed the park a lot more had I gone during the cooler months, when more of the flowers were blooming. There are apparently a number of wild orchids there and some other interesting flowers.
Regardless, Jason and I saw a skink and two bobtail lizards. As I’ve mentioned, I have seen them a few times lately – at John Forrest National Park and at Neil Hawkins.
It didn’t take long before we had explored majority of the park, so we moved along to Blackwall Reach.
Blackwall Reach Cliffs
I have seen the Blackwall Reach Cliffs plenty of times due to passing them back and forth constantly at my job, but have never visited them. It was such a cool spot!
There is a certain area where people jump off the cliffs and into the river. Jason and I hadn’t initially planned on going here so I didn’t have my bathing suit with me or else I would have jumped off, too!
Blackwall Reach is located pretty close to Bicton Baths and Point Walter sandbar, so I’m surprised I hadn’t checked out Blackwall Reach until now. I’ll have to go back, if only to jump off one of the cliffs!
Mullaroo Beach
One night, I met up with my friend Chris and we drove up to Mullaroo Beach after dark to look at the stars and enjoy the solace of the beach at nighttime. I hadn’t really seen the stars away from the city since being in Perth, so it was a treat to see a lot more viewable in the sky.
The viewable stars are different here. I can see Orion’s Belt, but that’s the only constellation I’m familiar with. Everything is turned around, upside down(?), etc. The north star isn’t viewable from the southern hemisphere. I can’t see the Big or Little Dipper, or Cassiopeia, which are the constellations that I actually am familiar with haha. It is strange to look to the sky and not see the sky I have always been familiar with.
Chris and I walked along the beach for a while, watching moonlit waves crash upon the shore. Now that it’s warm out, the beaches are packed during the day so it was a funny contrast to be pretty much the only people on the beach at night.
Mullaroo actually had a shark sighting a day prior, extremely close to shore. I think it was three meters from shore. It was a tiger shark and was spotted by a drone. It swam pretty close to a woman in the water (who didn’t know it was there), checked her out, and then swam in the other direction. Sharks aren’t out to hurt us, people!
Cottesloe Beach
After having a lazy morning and much debate, I decided to go to Cottesloe Beach. I have been meaning to go forever, and this week I made it happen.
I’m so glad I did, as it was some of the best snorkeling visibility I’ve had along the coast.
I saw the estuarian cobbler fish again, this time while snorkeling! I found it funny that I saw it for the first time ever a week prior while walking to work, then proceeded to see it again while snorkeling. When I first saw it, it looked like an eel digging into the water, its body slithering back and forth, mouth into the sand. It was eating something, or trying to.
Such a cool sight! I almost didn’t go to the beach that day, but am very glad I did.
Henrietta Rocks and Pinkie Beach
The last of the fun for the week was ANOTHER trip to Rottnest. I may have mentioned already, but through my job I get a pretty amazing discount on the ferries to Rottnest Island. It’s essentially a travel allowance and I want to take advantage of it while I’m in Perth since Rottnest is pretty expensive to get to otherwise.
I wanted to snorkel at Henrietta Rocks the last time I visited, but since no one was snorkeling when I got there I decided to skip it. Well, this time the people were out! I’m happy I was able to get into the water and check out the shipwreck.
I saw a lot of cool fish and even what I believe is a sea anemone? The visibility was really quite amazing, too, which was a huge plus for me.
My favorite part of snorkeling at Henrietta Rocks was spotting another starfish. Yay!
After spending some time at Henrietta Rocks, I walked over to Pinkie Beach. My coworkers Jade and Amber were there, celebrating Amber’s birthday.
I went snorkeling again but the visibility wasn’t as great at Henrietta Rocks. Still – I did manage to see a HUGE fish I hadn’t seen before, probably four feet long.
One of the things I really love about snorkeling is that every time is different and you never know what you’re going to see. The visibility could be shit and all I could see is puffer fish, like my first visit to Omeo Wreck. Or the visibility could be amazing and I could see dolphins, starfish, cuttlefish, octopus, etc. Who knows? It is like visiting another world and it has certainly become a passion of mine since my first visit to Hawaii.
Art of the Week
My first art of the year! I have no idea where I’m going to take my art this year. We shall see.
Reflections
I didn’t really realize until writing this, just how much stuff I’ve done this week haha. At one point, I had two days off work, then a day working, and then two more days off, so it was a lot of free time to explore which was excellent.
It has been warming up lately. A lot of 90 degree (Fahrenheit) days. It is colder by the water, so when I’m off work, I try to be near the coast. January is allegedly the warmest month in Perth. I’m confident I’ll get through it. There are supposedly days where it can be 40 degrees Celsius for a few days in a row. That calculates to… 104 degrees Fahrenheit. I will say, the heat is different here. It’s dry, not humid, and to me that feels much better.
I also have some very good news… I can hear out of both my ears again! I mentioned last week, but it was incredibly, incredibly frustrating to not be able to hear out of my left ear. It went on for over a week. I was really stressing about it so I’m really glad everything is fine now and it didn’t end up being something serious.
Some other memorable moments of the week…
While at work, I had a customer asking if we had any grenadine for a Shirley Temple. She commented how [Australians] don’t know what a Shirley Temple is. I said that we didn’t have grenadine and asked where she was from. She said Los Angeles. It was pretty busy at the bar, otherwise I would have loved to chat with a fellow American for a while longer. I’ve mentioned this plenty, but I have hardly run into any Americans at all since being in Perth. Every time I do, it feels like a treat.
Another nice connection at work – I was chatting with a really kind woman who was curious about where I’m from, what I’m in Australia for, etc. She told me I better be calling my parents and I told her I do all the time. She shared with me that her son is traveling around America at the moment. The interaction was rather brief but it felt like I was able to receive a little bit of “motherly love” from a stranger. Her son was away traveling, while I am someone else’s son that’s away, traveling. There are times where I sort of “see” my mom, or dad (or other loved ones) in people while out here and this was definitely one of those times.
And lastly – a bit about snakes. Snakes have been on my mind more recently, now that I saw one at Neil Hawkins Park the other week. My friend Liam sent me a picture his mom took of her new pet snake… that was found in her AIR CONDITIONER. So insane. I also learned that there are no snakes in New Zealand, which I found interesting.
That’s all for now. I don’t have much planned over the next week. I think I will go snorkeling on my next days off. Maybe go on a hike if it’s not too hot. We shall see. Stay tuned!
Big thank you to everyone reading these blogs! I would love to hear any feedback, thoughts, questions, etc. And if you’re enjoying the posts, please do share on social media!
Until next time – sending my love.