Perth, the capital of Western Australia and the fourth most populated city in Australia, will shine as a brightest spot on the #powerTrip360 map as this is the city where we stayed the longest after Sydney, the city of origin of the ride.
The extended stay in Perth (5 days) was part planned and part unplanned. We had originally planned to stay there for 3 days to get the bikes serviced and to explore the city. However, somewhere earlier we crashed the drone and had to send it back to get it repaired and we were to receive it back in Perth. So, extra 2 days were spent in waiting for the drone to return.
Here we also had our first encounter with the rain on this roadtrip. Our first day in the city was completely washed out and the only thing we could manage to get done was to get the Ninja serviced. I had a bit of a scary moment while taking the Ninja to the service center when a little bigger than necessary twist of the wrist caused the rear tyre to spin rather violently while taking a turn on a wet street. It came back without any damage though.
Also someone stole the 10 L fuel jerrycan that we were carrying. It was stolen from our hotel parking at night. Thankfully, it was the only such kind of incident that happened with us. Otherwise, we felt completely safe to leave the luggage, including expensive camera gear, on the bike as we parked the bikes and went away to have food or to click pictures.
Next 4 days were spent getting the Panigale serviced and ‘leisurely’ exploring the city and shooting its skyline and exploring its street art installations. We also got to be the part of the city’s Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride 2017. Check our detailed coverage of the DGR – Perth 2017 here
My visit to the Fremantle area to shoot with street art installations is definitely one of the highlights of our stay in Perth. It was a riot of colors all around. The streets were full of graffiti and each one looked better than the other. I saw some of Australia’s finest street art over there.
The last and final night of our stay in the city, I went to the famous Kings Park Botanical Garden in Perth. It is a very popular tourist spot that is visited by over 5 million people each year. It offers some breathtaking panoramic views of the city, in particular the Central Business District once the sun has set and the buildings are lit up. With a total area of 4.6 square kilometers, the park itself is the largest inner city park in the world and is home to over 324 native plant varieties and over 80 bird species. Then there’s one State War Memorial as well located within the park. As per Wikipedia, “the streets are tree lined with individual plaques dedicated by family members to Western Australian service men and women who died in World War I and World War II.”
We made the most out of our stay in Perth; however, there was so much to do and see that probably it would require another #powerTrip360 to explore everything this city has to offer.