Black Swans
Trip Start
Dec 03, 2004
1
32
85
Trip End
Nov 31, 2005
Perth, Australia
Friday, February 4, 2005
After I bought the bike I took it for a test run along the coast of the Swan River up towards Perth. I went about twenty kilometres, admiring the views out over the aquamarine waters of the Swan, the sailboats zipping in the warm winds. The whole way up there are little slips of sand with colorfully painted rowboats pulled up and small children playing on the tiny beaches and in the warm river water. About eight kilometres out of Fremantle is Pt. Walter, where a point of sand extends like a tongue so far into the river that it almost seems to touch the other side. Here there is a jetty sticking out from a Norfolk-pine shaded strip of sand and about fifty children bombing off the jetty or lollygagging in the water while their parents take advantage of the shade . The famous black swans that the river is named after are calmly paddling about between the children, too. I lock up the bike and take off my shoes and wade out to let the water lap over my knees.
The next day I head up into Perth to investigate the city. It's a very warm day, the type where you always think that you've just passed by the exhaust pipe from a bus and will walk out of the puff of warm air any second; but then you realize that, in fact, you're on a pedestrian mall and that's just the breeze passing you by. Then it dies and it's even hotter in the stillness. Perth reminds me of Vancouver: a younger, glassier city than its more historic eastern counterparts, tree-lined avenues, a big park that they present as their best tourist attraction, just like we are justifiably proud of Stanley Park.
