Lewis the Lion waves goodbye to Australia’s Red Centre
Before Lewis the Lion knew it, the end of his Red Centre adventure had come to an end. He had enjoyed it so much he felt quite sad to be leaving but in the same breath, he felt excited about the adventure that lay ahead, especially as he was going to visit some good friends: Alicia and Jennifer.
Helen with her old school friend Jennifer
As the aeroplane rose over the red and orange landscape, Lewis waved goodbye. His time there had simply been incredible and as ever, like the soaring aeroplane, he felt his heart soar too with the happiness that he felt inside at having had such a fantastic opportunity to visit Australia’s Red Centre.
Lewis the Lion is sat next to an emergency exit on the plane
This time on the flight to Perth, he and Helen had been placed next to the emergency exit and were given a special briefing about how to evacuate the plane should it encounter any problem. He secretly hoped that today there wouldn’t be any such problems. On the plus he discovered that there was more leg room in these seats even if you couldn’t store anything under the seats in front of you.
Lewis the Lion draws closer to Perth
Lewis the Lion was a little bit confused by the strange half hour time zone change. On his ticket from Alice Springs it said that the flight departed at 09:55 AM but arrived in Perth at 11:35 AM. Only he knew that Perth’s time zone was an hour and a half behind Alice Springs.
Can you work out how long he spent on the flight?
From the sky, Perth looks like a huge metropolis
It wasn’t too long before he could see a vast metropolis stretching out beneath him. Perth, on the south-west coast of Australia was after all Australia’s fourth most inhabited city with a population of nearly 2 million. From the sky it looked like a very pleasant place to live with the coast close at hand to the city itself. Lewis’ overall impression of Perth was that it was a sunny city which was clean, elegant, dynamic and with good transport links. (He noticed that it had many places named after places he already knew in the UK: even the city name, Perth, was named after a city in Scotland!). It so happened that when he was there there was a vast food and music festival lining the city streets: what a happy atmosphere there seemed to be there!
Lewis the Lion with Helen and Alicia in Freemantle, Perth
When he first arrived though, he was delighted to be met at the airport by his friend Alicia who he had met travelling from Brazil to Argentina. It was great to be able to swap travel stories and for Alicia to show them around her hometown, an elegant suburb of Perth called Freemantle.
Lewis the Lion visits a trendy restaurant in Freemantle
Here she took Helen and Lewis the Lion to a trendy restaurant on the coast (a converted brewery), which was jam-packed with customers. ‘Always a good sign,’ Lewis the Lion thought to himself. Although he was rather surprised when he read the menu in more detail. Check out Lewis the Lion’s next blog to see what was on it…!
Lewis the Lion loves the outdoor cafe lifestyle of Freemantle
Freemantle or ‘Free-o’ as the Aussies called it, seemed to have it all: an elegant, outdoor cafe lifestyle, right next to the beach and harbour.
Lewis the Lion perches on top of the lobster catcher statue
Whilst there, Lewis the Lion visited the citadel’s Round House which used to be its jail a long time ago.
A visit to the Freemantle Round House
Here he learnt that the state of Western Australia, of which Perth is the biggest city, covers a huge landmass. It is so big that it could easily fit the American state of Texas, Great Britain and Malaysia into it!
Lewis the Lion is surprised by the huge size of the Western Australia state
He also laughed his cheeky laugh as Helen investigated one of the former punishments: the stocks. She placed her head and hands between the bars and then was locked in! In the olden days she would then have been pelted with rotten eggs and vegetables: quite a humiliating and smelly punishment for anyone concerned!
Lewis the Lion laughs as Helen sits in the Freemantle stocks!
The next day, Lewis the Lion discovered what some of the Western Australian beaches had to offer and he was rather surprised.
Lewis the Lion and the Western Australian coastline
Like on the eastern Australian coastline, there was miles of sandy beaches under a beautiful blue sky. However, on the particular beach he visited, Marmion Marine Park, he was warned about snakes.
Lewis the Lion doesn’t like the thought of there being snakes on the beach!
It transpired that he didn’t really have to worry too much about the snakes that day but rather the cheeky skinks trying to steal his lunch!
Two bold skinks hunt for picnic food!
Several skinks appear by the bathers
Lewis the Lion had never even heard of a skink before but he soon discovered that it’s a beautiful and bold reptile.
Lewis the Lion sees his first ever skink!
Whilst he enjoyed watching the antics of the skinks, Helen and her friends to snorkel behind the rocks. It wasn’t quite the Great Barrier Reef here but instead, Helen saw lots of seaweed and the odd shoal of small fish.
Snorkelling opportunities lie behind the rocks
This wasn’t quite the pair’s last encounter with Australian animals as a few days later, they went to visit Helen’s old school friend, Jennifer who together with her husband Jason and children Tommy,
Tommy welcomes Lewis to Western Australia
Estelle,
Estelle makes Lewis the Lion comfortable
Lucy and Stephanie, they went in search of wild koalas and kangaroos.
Lewis the Lion and Helen hope to see some wild koalas
They visited the Yanchep National Park where koalas roam free, feeding from the native eucalyptus trees. This wasn’t like a zoo where you were guaranteed to see different animals. Here in the wild it was pot luck and Lewis and his friends had to look really, really carefully before they managed to spot any koalas. (Unfortunately there weren’t any kangaroos on that particular day as there was a classic car show that seemed to have chased them away).
Lewis the Lion goes looking for some real live koalas
The koalas were hard to see at first as the grey-brown of their fur seemed to blend in with the grey-brown of the bark of the eucalyptus trees. What a good camouflage! They were also feeding high off the ground in the high branches of the trees.
A koala is perched up high in the tree
Can you see the koala in this tree?
On his travels, Lewis the Lion marvelled at the way that different animals adapted to their local environment in order to protect themselves. Particularly, he loved the way that animals blended into the background with effective camouflage.
On his travels, he also found out about an incredible Chinese artist called Liu Bolin who is a specialist at creating works of art with hidden objects camouflaged into their background. Click here to find out more.
How would you describe Liu Bolin’s artwork? Do you like it or not? Why or why not?
