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I spent just over a week in Western Australia. I arrived during Labour Day and found accommodation to be almost impossible to find. My first impression of Australia was as a place even more expensive than Japan!

Perth is very isolated from the rest of Australia. There are no other major cities within thousands of kilometres. Australians really like their live music and the biggest downside of living in Perth is that all the bands touring Australia almost never include Perth on their tours.

I took a nap in the airport when I first arrived since it was too early to check into any hotels. I suspect that is when the LCD on my camera cracked. Although there was a Casio repair centre in the city, the repairs would cost over $200 since cracked LCDs are not covered by Casio’s warranty. This was the second Casio LCD I cracked on this trip; I decided to get a very nice Olympus camera which I am extremely happy with. Although the screen is not as bright, the camera is durable, and as a bonus waterproof to 10 metres!

I did six dives near Esperance. The first four were right from the dock that stretches several hundred metres into the water. The last two dives were done from a boat. We planned to catch abalone for dinner. Unfortunately, no one bothered to look up what abalone looked like in their natural habitat. We ended up with some sort of snail. The mystery meat was served up and I am just glad no one got sick since no one was able to identify it. I’m willing to eat almost anything as long as (a) I know what it is and (b) it’s reasonably safe. Chalk one up for experience!