Part 63 - Perth (still not the Scottish one) - Part 2

The Pinnacles

During the 1980s in the UK, Channel 4 broadcast a series of quirky sports from round the globe, including sumo, kabaddi, and Australian rules football. I'd always fancied watching a game and Australia was the best (and probably only) place to do it. 

Perth's Optus stadium was not far from "The Pits", and was home to both Perth Eagles AND Fremantle Dockers, so I went to watch the latter's Saturday afternoon match against North Melbourne (nicknamed the Kangaroos). 

First up, their 60,000 capacity stadium is very impressive. It was was only two-thirds full, but that was enough for an atmosphere. 

Without getting bogged down in the rules, AFL is very similar to Gaelic football, and also has elements of rugby and proper football (soccer!) thrown in. There are a few oddities - for example, any of the six umpires on the pitch can't send off another player - even if they eviscerated their opponent and offered them up as a sacrifice to Cthulhu.

I was lucky enough to sit next door to a chap called Arthur, who was more than happy to answer my many stupid questions. 

You also get your money's worth at Aussie rules. While there are supposed to be four quarters of twenty minutes each, in reality, each quarter last more than half an hour, and there is enough of a break between each quarter to top up your rather expensive beer. 

Fremantle nearly scored enough points to win at the end which would have made for an exciting video, but sadly they bottled it, however it was still an enjoyable day out. 

I also did one of the Perth parkruns that morning, which was only notable for the fact that it was flat and not too hot, although one of the volunteers told me that it had been 35c at the 8am start a few weeks ago. I would stuggle to sit in the shade sipping a cold drink in those kind of temperatures, let alone run five kilometres. 

For my final day in Perth, I booked a stargazing trip. It ended up being a bit of a schoolboy error, as we didn't start the stargazing until after dark (turns out that's the best time to do it), and I didn't get home till after 11pm - and I had my flight booked early in the morning. Still, it means spending less time in The Cesspit, so that was fine by me. 

On the way to the desert, we stopped at Lancelin Sands - some sand-dunes by the sea where we were given the opportunity to go sandboarding. It was a great deal safer/tamer than the time I did it in Peru anyway. 

The location chosen for the stargazing was called "The Pinnacles", a collection of limestone formations in a desert two hours north of Perth. 

We had an hour before dinner to wander about. In one of the structures, I found a very curious object which I was scared to touch. I took a video of it, and for added gravitas, added the soundtrack to Fraggle Rock to it.

It turns out it was probably a seed pod, which isn't as exciting as a snake skin or scorpion, but it still looked quite funky (and given I've not encountered any dangerous wildlife in Australia, probably for the best). 

As darkness fell, we were fed a pretty decent dinner, and then waited for the stars to appear. Living in a city with lots of pollution, you forget how amazing the night sky is, and the spot they'd taken us to was well suited to stargazing. 

Spooky

The moon and Venus (the latter not visible through my crap phone camera)

Of course, being in the southern hemisphere, everything - including the moon, was upside-down.

The quality of my phone camera suddenly improved (once staring through a massive telescope).

Then it was back to the House of Horrors for half a night's sleep before the final part of this adventure, Asia! Starting off with Malaysia.