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Last year David William Jnr and I wrote about the joys of travelling at home, opening your eyes and walking around your neighbourhood, and the things you could do to bring your overseas adventure home. I’ll admit that bartering for all of your food, wearing the same t-shirt for three days in a row and stuffing everything you needed for a couple of weeks into a backpack aren’t the most helpful suggestions!

This summer I thought I’d take some of my own medicine and holiday in Perth, Western Australia. I’m always meeting people from overseas who have seen more of the country than me, so it was about time that I tried to put an end to that.

From the 23rd of December through until the 3rd of January (who am I kidding, I snuck in a couple of extra days!) was the time-frame for holiday: Perth. While on the summer sojourn and meeting locals who’d also decided to embark on a day trip adventure, we’d talk about having kayaked yesterday, scurried through prison tunnels the day before or sailed on the Indian Ocean last night and they were intrigued, curious and excited that there was this much on offer on our own doorstep. So this post is a bit of a wrap up of what I’d recommend for a week or two in Perth.

Being an Australian summer, the beach was going to be a key feature. But what about the things that really make an overseas adventure an adventure? Meeting other travellers from faraway places, trying new things, eating plenty of fresh fruit (on most trips to South East Asia at least), sun and sand, doing a few silly things and rediscovering the joys and simplicity of riding a bicycle around the place.

These are most of the things that you long for when you’re back at the desk, suffering form the post-holiday blues, but can all come home with you. Swapping your car for a bike or a bus, getting outside, eating healthy, stretching yourself and meeting some new people. They don’t have to be declared and handed over at customs when you arrive home, this mindset¹ is a freebie that you can take anywhere.

There we were bobbing around in the Indian Ocean and on high alert from the recent shark sightings on Perth’s northern beaches, paddling hard in the rear cockpit against a stiff breeze, battling some decent sized swells and small waves crashing into the front of the kayak which providing me with a full day of laughs as my first mate in the front seat got soaked! As we were paddling along and I was snapping a few photos, I had a big case of dejavu, I’d seen this photo before somewhere? Not here though, I couldn’t put my finger on it?

At the end of the week it hit me, I’d snapped photos of each one of these scenes, in a different part of the world and now I’d gone full-circle to re-live them all in my own backyard?

I’m still not sure that you can compare the mystery of Halong Bay in Vietnam to Shoalwater Islands Marine Park in Perth (both featured above), one’s accessible on the weekend as an escape from the office cubicle, the other is a once-in-a-lifetime paddle.

Again the above snaps aren’t quite in the same league, but if you squint your eyes a little bit!? As you’re heading down barefoot the from the lookout from the highest tip of the island and doing the ee-oo-ahhh dance because the timbers from the staircase are burning your feet, you know you’re home when an old lady with a thick Aussie twang yells “Here daahhll” and puts her towel down on the burning staircase timbers for you to stand on and cool off, she calls you a “flamin’ idiot”, mistakes you for her grandson and everyone’s happy.

I’ll be the first to put my hand up and say that nothing competes with packing up your bags, digging out your passport, heading to the airport and breathing in everything another country has to offer. This summer has been generous enough to offer up a mix of ocean adventures, meeting some fellow travellers, heading overseas (on a technicality)², summer love and plenty of sunburn. Holidaying at home might not be as sustainable as a pending 3 month sub-continent adventure but should be able to keep the travel bug at bay.³ The comparative cost of the tunnelling above was about a 10x price difference, although I’m guessing that was just for the safety gear!

Lonely Planet alone publishes 500 different guidebooks, there’s more than likely one for your neck of the woods. Until you have to get your next round of travel vaccinations, a wad of overseas cash & a panic because you can’t find your passport I’m sure there are some hot-spots on your doorstep that tourists would check out. Just think of the zero jet lag opportunities?

Tagged as: Balance, chu chi, Freedom, fremantle, kah tao, Kayaking, perth, Rottnest, Snorkelling, thailand, travel, vietnam, Work

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