Wombats in Perth

Caversham Beginnings

Ned’s nodding again

The park features about 200 species, and more than 2000 head of animals, birds and reptiles. You can even stroke a Koala. We were captivated by baby Ned and his mum Mini. Koalas sleep for 20 hours a day and feed the rest of the time, We did actually see one awake munching on Eucalyptus leaves which I videoed for posterity. You can cuddle a large hairy nosed Wombat, (ours was called Neil) stroke Barry the Python and Luna the Possum. You couldn’t stroke Sylvester the spotted QuolI as he is a carnivore and could mistake your fingers for a sausage sandwich. I even managed a selfie with a friendly goat.

I got my goat

Besides the wombats, my other favourite furries included the high speed baby guinea pigs. They whizz around their enclosure like tiny over wound clockwork toys. The farm show was great too. A shearing demonstration ensued with a couple of superkeen Kelpies (Australian cattle dogs) showing off their rounding up skills. 

We all need our beauty sleep     Wine tasting Our next excursion was a wine, cheese and chocolate tasting extravaganza on an ‘Afternoon Delight’ Swan Valley tour. The Swan Valley is Western Australia’s oldest wine growing region and is very well geared up for visitors with some very large wineries which export their wine all over the world and some smaller, cooler ones which don’t. We visited the Houghton, Jarrah and Swan Brook wineries as well as the Margaret River Chocolate company where we indulged in speed eating of chocolate ‘pastilles’ which melted in the hand before they got to the mouth if you weren’t on the ball.    Tempting truffles The white wines we tasted were indifferent on the whole with lots of chardonnay which I don’t like at all, but the reds were a much better quality. I think the white wine grapes do better in a cooler climate myself. Vino Collapso anyone? We meet some fun folk on the tour. Once you’ve had a few wine tastings everyone gets quite jolly anyway. The beer was also good apparently. The most fun name being ‘Rye the Hop Not’ on offer at MASH brewery. We also had some very nice cheese, bread and olives to go with our various beverages.. Monkeys love it From wombats to Wine and cheese Our guide Kitty, was very informative and I recommend it as a pleasant way to spend a few hours of your Australian afternoon. We didn’t take too long at each place so there wasn’t time to get bored of anything either. There was none of that trailing you round the stainless steel vats droning on about how they make it in the first place, which can become tedious. At Jarrah wineries we came across a blackboard pronouncing the acronym – COTW! One of our party who was in the military said that to her it meant George Bush’s Coalition Of The Willing in Iraq. It turned out to stand for – Cheese Of The Week! Anyway we bought some.. Cheese of the week! Are you looking at me?