After the amount of time we'd been apart, it didn't seem real. We expected the bubble to burst at any moment, and return us to beds that were thousands of miles apart like so many other times during nights in the previous months. Even in the moments when we dared to accept and enjoy this reality, the feeling that it was only a fleeting moment was too strong to completely relax. Since the beginning of our relationship, we knew there was a date on the horizon that would bring our separation. It is unclear whether or not it was down to this reason or our similar personalities that led to an immediate degree of urgency in our emotional honesty, and an unprecedented spontaneity to our decisions. But that was over now; there were no deadlines. No dates looming behind every silver lining that would reap us of our happiness. Our future was in our hands and we could now shape it according to a mutual vision.
We spent the first few days acclimatizing to this new state of being and in the moments when all feet were firmly back on Earth, I passed on the orientation tour that had been give to me .
I'd done a bit of a reconnaissance mission before she arrived and managed to secure us a room in what must surely be the most amazing backpacker accommodation in Australia. 'Bambu Backpackers' had only just reopened following a refit and it was looking lush as.
The only problem was that there was only one double room available so we had to suffer in squalor in a room with TV & DVD player, and bathroom attached. The only downside to it's central location in Northbridge (the main going out district in Perth), was it's central location in Northbridge (the main going out district in Perth). We spent most of our evenings with the spirits of base passing through our bodies and sleep was usually the consequence of exhaustion. Luckily this was easily achievable and unconsciousness was attainable without too much stress.
On Friday night we went out with Luke and his house mates, checked out Scarborough Beach on the Saturday, and went to Rottnest Island on the Sunday.
Rottnest island is Western Australia's island playground and about 90 minutes by ferry from Perth or 25 minutes from Freemantle. It boasts beautiful beaches and bays, crystal clear waters, spectacular coastline, reefs and diverse marine life. It's name stems from a chance encounter in 1696 between the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh, and the island's unique inhabitants, the Quokkas. He mistook these winter-slipper like critters for giant rats, and named the island Rotte-nest, meaning rats nest. As the name was a little more catchy than it's Aboriginal original, 'Wadjemup', the name stuck. The ironic thing about this beautiful island is that it was originally used a high security prison to keep criminal Aborigines on. Apparently the Australians didn't learn from the mistake of the English from sending criminals to a better location than their own.
After a brief walk on the island and an hour on one of the beaches, Luke and I indulged in some scuba diving, and left Lucie to gathering sunrays on the sand. There was comparatively little animal life to look at on the dive, but it did provide my first sighting of a beautifully fluorescent slug-like creature called a 'nudibranch', and gave us a few caves and a swim-through to check out.
Back on the beach, Lucie was discovering the difference between sunshine in England and Australia, and like every European that goes aboard, achieved the lobster-look on the first day.
On Monday we met up with my dad's cousin, Mike, who kindly drove us around the sights of Perth and the surrounding area. He showed us $2.5million catamaran he was building at work, a AC Cobra he'd built at home and a beautiful weekend retreat he'd built for retirement. In the evening Mike and his wife, Sue, took us for a gigantic that would probably have satisfied our dietary requirements for a week. This was a very good thing considering we were able to embark on our first camping road-trip but would give our stomachs a bad idea of what it should expect.
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