Having realised rather belatedly that our hotel booking in Perth included breakfast we did our best to make up for lost calories before striding off into downtown Perth to pick up our hire car.  Why is it that the Japanese can get the big things right (like putting the steering wheel on the correct side), but somehow haven’t understood that the indicator stalk should be on the left hand side of the column?  It’s all very well, but so far every time we’ve come to turn a corner we’ve managed to clean the windscreen and at the same time caused total confusion among other drivers.

First stop after leaving Perth was a quick trip down to Fremantle (or Freo as it’s known) and a saunter down the ‘cappuccino strip’ – which lays a justifiable claim to being the most laid back spot in all of Western Australia.  Lots of good buskers (one lad making a really good job of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here), nice markets and well-preserved late 19th Century architecture.A  hundred miles or so further south and we hit Dunsborough and Geographe Bay with its fantastic deserted beaches, blue seas and wildlife.  Within two minutes of having slipped off our sandals for a paddle we saw two enormous Rays (well, at three feet across they seemed pretty big to us) but as the only photograph I managed to snap looked like a close up of a couple of rocks you’ll just have to take our word for it.

Just south of Dunsborough is Cape Naturaliste; not, as you might imagine, the local refuge for those who like to get their kit off, but a favoured spot for whale watching (in the season) with some even more beautiful beaches and the most annoying and persistent flies known to man.