Shoes....

One of the biggest things that we've noticed in Perth has been the complete lack of shoes. I'm sure that there are stores that have ample supplies of cross trainers, dress shoes or even thongs. Most malls seem to have several shoe shores packed full of... you guessed it.... shoes. 

My question... why does no one wear them?

We go to the grocery store and half the people (girls and guys) don't have on shoes. 

People go for runs without shoes.

People wear their wetties (wetsuits) and carry their surf boards to the beach for kilometres without shoes.

And more importantly, students come to phys ed and kick off their shoes to do everything from badminton, volleyball, footy, soccer, fitness testing, you name it... they are shoeless for it. 

At first I was so taken back with all the barefooted children and told them they needed to keep their shoes on at all times... but even the teachers don't like wearing shoes. It's the strangest thing. 

We asked our neighbour about it and she agreed, "Shoes are so constricting". She told us she didn't wear shoes growing up, unless it was to go to church or school. 

Well one thing is certain... this shoeless culture must have a booming pedicure industry!!

The Wet

After 5 months of blistering sun, it finally rained! Now it didn't just rain... it was a complete downpour where they got more rain in one day then they had in the entire year combined.

We woke up to thunder and lightning and by the time school started it was a monsoon. We kept the kids in for phys ed for the first period and played a massive game of dodgeball (the first time all year that any classes have been combined) and by the time the second period came I was told to suck it up and take my class outside. 

So I grabbed my pseudo rain coat (fashionable not functional) and took my grade 9 girls down to the oval to play field hockey. The rain had let up and was drizzling nicely as all the girls kicked off their shoes and began dancing in the rain like they were straight out of the movie 'Australia'. Now I'm all up for playing sports in the rain, but I've never seen students take off their shoes and literally run wild with excitement. And it wasn't just my class... the two other boys classes were completely shoeless as well and just as wild playing footy!! However, as the class continued, the rain picked up and started coming in sideways and at one point I felt like Forrest Gump in Vietnam. After a solid 45 minutes and my three layers soaking right through, I pulled the teacher card and called it a day. 

I came home and have been frantically looking for a rain coat since that day thinking I would see more rain this week. Nope... that was it. 

Was that winter??

No wonder the kids were so happy!

Road Trip

After realizing we weren't going to be able to swim with the whale sharks or the giant sea turtles up in Exmouth, we decided to try our luck down South this break.

After a quick stop at clean-skins, we plugged in our GPS and headed towards Albany in Caddy (the car).

Now the most frustrating part of this trip was the fact that we are fact quite avid campers back home. In Edmonton we have all the gear, the chairs, the stoves, the axe, the pots/ pans, coolers.... everything that you could need for a camping trip. However, one little problem.... we're in Australia. Well no worries as the Aussies say. We borrowed a one man tent and air mattress from my school, bought an eskie (on wheels!!) and threw in pillows. What more could we need? Little did we know that we were heading into the storm of the year. Okay, it wasn't the storm of the year but it did rain for 7 days straight!!!

7 days of rain in a one man tent with no tarp! Somehow we managed to stay relatively dry.... Dave took the leaky side.

We spent to the first two nights at Shelley's beach outside of Albany. Somehow we got the best spot at this little gem of a campsite on the ocean. As the sun was setting (at 5pm!) we hustled to cook our food on the communal barbie and then hid in our tent until 5am when the sun came up or for the rain to stop.

View from our tent on Shelley's

It just so happened that we were in Albany having breakfast when we realized that we were there for Anzac day. It was not only surreal to be experiencing Anzac day in Australia but to be in Albany was by no means a coincidence. During WWI, the Australian ships would travel to NZ and the East coast collecting troops before heading over to Albany to collect any WA soldiers. For many Aussies, Albany was the last view they had of Australia before heading into battle in Europe. Many, many soldiers never came home. The service was beautiful and very touching and the rain and fog of the morning only added to the very powerful ceremony. It was so nice to know that Remembrance Day is celebrated in other countries with such respect.

ANZAC Memorial

After Albany we headed to Denmark (no, not the country) where we discovered another completely hidden wine region! Needless to say we went for our own wine tour and had a very, very fun afternoon. Besides wine, we did the Tree Top Walk where you can walk 60 ft above the ground in amongst giant Karri trees.

Standing 60 ft in the air with the giant Karri trees

We also saw the Gap, a massive crevice of granite and the Natural Bridge which was absolutely spectacular.

Holding the Gap open

 A Leprechaun on the Natural Bridge

After camping for 4 nights in the pouring rain we decided it was time for a real shower (mostly I wanted a TV to watch the Royal Wedding). We headed to the Karri Valley Resort and it was breathtaking. It was the JPL without the mountains but the kangaroos made up for it. Dave fished (and still says there was no fish in the entire lake) and I got to watch all 10 hours of the Royal Wedding uninterrupted!

Karri Valley Resort

Skip the local Joey 

Dave trying to catch some dinner

Overall, we absolutely loved the trip down south but we're even happier to be back home in the sun!