Day 4 (November 6)

My flights from Lewiston Idaho to Perth Australia went off without a hitch: no lost baggage, no missed connections and no customs hang-ups.  In reading and talking to Scott, I realize the vast difference between his first class flights and my economy class flights!  (Being a recent college graduate, I have a budget!) 

During my final flight from Brisbane to Perth it hit me like a tidal wave just what this next two months is going to entail.  The vast majority of my preparation for this trip involved watching “Quigly Down Under” and Googling “bike touring gear”.  As I watched the miles of Australian desert pass underneath the plane, realized this may have been insufficient prep!  But here we are.  Gosh, I hope this goes okay.

When I landed in Perth, Scott was there to meet me.  He had arrived six hours before, thus he had to patiently wait while I reassembled my bike and gear.  Then we were off.

At Perth airport. The “Before” picture.

Scott, unlike myself, has been preparing for this trip ad nauseum.  His preparations included careful route finding for the entire journey.  He navigated us 33km along not too busy streets, pedestrian over passes, bike paths and finally to our hotel along the Indian Ocean.  The ride took about 3 and a half hours.

Local sights in Perth.

Report:  first ride is complete and my bum is not too sore, but I expect this to change when we ride all day.

Today we ride to the ferry for Rottnest Island to see the happiest mammal on Earth: the quokka (a small, smiling marsupial).  I really hope one of these takes a liking to me and follows me home!

Posted by Mattie (my first blog post ever!)