Heading back to Melbourne, via Perth.

Wednesday 15^th February, 2017.

A fairly full day of driving, non-eventful (as you'd hope) almost to the point of boring........ Avoided Busselton by using the Busselton By-pass road, which turned back into the Bussell Highway north of Busselton, and then got onto the South Western Highway south east of Bunbury, and drove on that to Armadale. From there we followed the same route we took on the way to Albany. Sort of. It would have been nice to take it a bit slower and have a few stops along the way but I was a bit worried about how the traffic would be in Perth mid-afternoon, turns out, I probably shouldn't have been. It was fine. 

I think the most exciting thing all day was seeing some camels in a paddock south of Armadale. Finally!! Ticked the last of our 'big game' off the list!

One advantage of a planned city is building the trainline in between the lanes of the highway. Very sensible. From Elizabeth Quay in Perth the train line sits snugly beween the lanes of the Mitchell Hwy which morphs into the Kwinana Freeway. They travel along together until the train line peels away near Kwinana.

Arrived back at the car hire place and the vehicle passed inspection.  I hope she gets a proper cleaning this time around, she deserves it. I've never heard of a Holden Malibu, but it was (mostly) a pleasure to drive, never skipped a beat, and wasn't too thirsty. 

Our bed tonight is at the Pensione Hotel on the corner of Pier and Murray Sts, with a very comfy bed, easy walking distance as it turns out to a few op shops but that mission is unsuccessful. We take a wander around the neighbourhood, planning where to have dinner. Rest stop with drinks at the bar attached to The Seasons Hotel, across the road from ours. We scratch Miss Maud's Restaurant as it's buffet style, and we really can't be bothered, so we end up at City Heart, and Indian restaurant with fairly decent food, and very close to the Pensione. 

We're very unimpressed that Virgin had changed our flight time from an early, but respectfully so 9.30 flight, to 7.30am. So, we're up early and out in time to watch the sunrise on the way to the airport. There has to be an upside! The cabbie is good for a chat, so the drive is dealt with quickly and we find breakfast at the airport. And then, we get breakfast on the plane.......... always the way, if we'd taken a chance and not eaten, we wouldn't have been fed on the plane! It's a 4 hour flight but with time zone changes, we arrive in Melbourne after 2pm. No lunch but not hungry after 2 breakfasts, so all good. Jump in a cab and head to Yarraville for a long weekend with family, before heading home to NSW.