Swan Valley

 

The next morning we got put and went to a new bakery before heading north back towards Perth and Swan Valley where we would spend our last night together. Along our drive we stopped at a conservation park, which is somewhere in between a zoo and a nature center. We were a bit skeptical when we first walked in though because the first exhibit we saw was guinea pigs. Just a pen full of guinea pigs and we were both like…. what are we doing here??? But we kept walking and it ended up being neat. The rest of the park was mostly Australian animals, although there wer also a lot of what appeared to be surrendered exotic animals as well. Most of them were clearly injured and likely unable to be return to the wild. We fed some geriatric kangaroos who had the cutest little faces full of wiry gray hairs, as well as some aggressive sheep, and a mule deer for some reason. There were so many different types of parrots and parakeets which were beautiful and some were able to say simple words like hello. We had fun looking at all the little critters, most of which were very comfortable with people and came up to us hoping for snacks.

Next we went for a nice wetland walk and watched some kangaroos jump off into the distance before heading to our Airbnb. Our Airbnb was in Swan Valley, the eastern edge of Perth and backed up to a national park. We were on the top of a hill that overlooked the entire city. We went to town and picked up Emma some snacks to bring home and some thai take away and had a bottle of wine and thai while watching the sunset over the city.

Emma’s flight out of Perth was at midnight so we had booked a second night in the Airbnb so we could spend the day relaxing and she could pack and shower before her flight and we wouldn’t have to feel rushed or cramped. We spent the morning sitting on the patio reading before we went out for a few easy walks. A few of the trails we tried to get to were closed, but we ended up happily deciding to just grab some food at the store and just relax at the Airbnb before she left. We spent the rest of the day resting and reading peacefully while we packed and got ready for her long journey hope. I was glad to have a day with minimal driving and to just spend it quietly relaxing. I dropped her off late at the airport, with minimal issues. The Perth Airport is huge, or at least it seems so from the outside. I drove her to the wrong terminal and it was a 10 minute drive to the correct one, which seems insane to me. They do have an interesting system for drop off/pick up though in that the first 7 minutes is free and its charged after that, which is nice compared to airports that have a bunch of people just sitting there and traffic officers yelling at everyone. I returned to the Airbnb late and passed out.