9^th September: Perth

Our first adventure here was King's Park. I'd been there before but I remembered very little. We drove in as Glen wanted to stay back and chase the oil leak. He was rather disturbed by it and the possible ramifications of it.

What can I say about King's Park? It was a riot of flowering wildflowers – the Wildflower Festival in fact. I walked for 3 ½ hours, took 120 photos and bought a couple of books-on wildflowers of course. I am learning to recognise lots! The large Boab, transplanted from northern WA, seems to be surviving. It would have been a sight trundling along the road on the back of a low loader semi all the way down the Great Northern Highway! I remember seeing a documentry on it! I liked the fountain dedicated to pioneering women, the field of Everlasting daisies, the Geraldton Wax and Kangaroo Paw which were great, and all the naming signs on the little plants down low. Very informative.

The gift shop is full of beautiful glass works but all very expensive! And the memorials were spectacular! I was amused by the fact that while the tree that Queen Elizabeth planted 60 years ago is a very strongly growing speciman, the one planted by the Duke of Edinburgh at the same time has struggled and been replaced twice, now being only 7 feet tall! And do you know that there are 1 ½ million ants for every human on this planet. (Our 3 million are green ants in our back yard!)

Glen has found the source of the leak: the sump plug wasn't done up properly. It is no wonder he does his own oil changes etc!.. So the bash plate (which was full of oil) came off and the plug tightened. Hopefully, no more trouble!