We arrived in Perth mid afternoon and the great weather followed us with sunny skies and warm temperatures. After checking in to the hotel, which is almost downtown, we walked down the riverfront to stretch our legs. Perth is situated on the Swam River, which is about as broad as the Mississippi but very clear and blue. A light dinner followed and after that, a quiet evening back at the hotel. The next day was our planned trip to Rottnest Island (a popular holiday destination for locals and visitors alike) which is an hour or so ferry ride out from Perth. We were scheduled to be on the ferry at 8:30 the next morning so we decided to make an early evening of it. Now, we had heard that there might be a weather front blowing through the next day, but we remained optimistic that it wouldn’t mess up the day too much……oh boy were we wrong…….
We got up the next morning and looking out the window, saw that it was somewhat cloudy but no rain so things were looking up, right? We headed downstairs and asked the front desk if they had umbrellas to borrow since we were walking down to the ferry dock, about 7 blocks away. Well, when they brought the umbrellas out, they were the really big, standard sized ones not the small fold up kind, and since we were planning on renting bikes on the island, that didn’t’ seem like it would work out too well. Sooo……we headed out the door, confident that the weather would clear up. I was feeling good in my freshly ironed new shirt and shorts which I hadn’t gotten a chance to wear yet and all seemed well with the world. Well, we weren’t but about a block away when the raindrops began to fall. And fall…..and fall. The rainfall was torrential, and I mean TORR….EN…..TIAL. We were completely soaked, through and through. We started to run to the ferry terminal but at some point realized we weren’t going to get any wetter than we already were! We stopped into several convenience stores along the way looking for umbrellas (hindsight was really good at that point) but apparently everyone else on the streets were trying to do the same thing and the first few places were completely sold out. Finally, we found a store that had ONE little cheap fold up umbrella left that was rainbow colored. Too cute. We continued on our way through the downpour, at one point walking through ankle deep water rushing down the street. Finally, we made it to the ferry dock and went up to the window to see what we could do about rescheduling the tickets. The woman at the desk was extremely helpful and sympathetic and swapped our tickets for the 23rd. With that obstacle out of the way, the next order of business was figuring out how to get out of our dripping clothes. As luck would have it, there was a souvenir shop next door and we were able to find a couple of shirts in there. The owner was so helpful that he even let us use his display Australian beach towel to dry off! Geez…..what a morning. Later, we heard on the news that this was the most rain they’d had in four years! We survived, though, and by the afternoon, the weather was nice again.
We got up the next morning and looking out the window, saw that it was somewhat cloudy but no rain so things were looking up, right? We headed downstairs and asked the front desk if they had umbrellas to borrow since we were walking down to the ferry dock, about 7 blocks away. Well, when they brought the umbrellas out, they were the really big, standard sized ones not the small fold up kind, and since we were planning on renting bikes on the island, that didn’t’ seem like it would work out too well. Sooo……we headed out the door, confident that the weather would clear up. I was feeling good in my freshly ironed new shirt and shorts which I hadn’t gotten a chance to wear yet and all seemed well with the world. Well, we weren’t but about a block away when the raindrops began to fall. And fall…..and fall. The rainfall was torrential, and I mean TORR….EN…..TIAL. We were completely soaked, through and through. We started to run to the ferry terminal but at some point realized we weren’t going to get any wetter than we already were! We stopped into several convenience stores along the way looking for umbrellas (hindsight was really good at that point) but apparently everyone else on the streets were trying to do the same thing and the first few places were completely sold out. Finally, we found a store that had ONE little cheap fold up umbrella left that was rainbow colored. Too cute. We continued on our way through the downpour, at one point walking through ankle deep water rushing down the street. Finally, we made it to the ferry dock and went up to the window to see what we could do about rescheduling the tickets. The woman at the desk was extremely helpful and sympathetic and swapped our tickets for the 23rd. With that obstacle out of the way, the next order of business was figuring out how to get out of our dripping clothes. As luck would have it, there was a souvenir shop next door and we were able to find a couple of shirts in there. The owner was so helpful that he even let us use his display Australian beach towel to dry off! Geez…..what a morning. Later, we heard on the news that this was the most rain they’d had in four years! We survived, though, and by the afternoon, the weather was nice again.
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