Our journey began on the 30th September with flights from Jersey to London Heathrow on British Airways, connecting to our Qatar Airways ticket from London to Perth via Doha. A taxi picked us up from the self-catering apartment where we had been staying for a few days, and it suddenly hit us just how much stuff we had brought along!

All went to plan and after a quick stop for some food in Heathrow we were on the plane bound for Doha. Dreading the long flights with the kids, we half-heartedly inquired about upgrading our tickets a few days before departure, only to realize Qatar Airways doesn’t offer a Premium Economy option. There wasn’t any availability anyway, and while we thought the upgrade to business class seemed reasonably priced, we might have been confusing the cost per ticket with the total price!

We needn’t have worried—the experience on both Qatar flights was excellent. Jamie, at 6 foot 2, had plenty of legroom and was comfortable, while the kids enjoyed a whole world of entertainment on the screens in front of them, which was quite a novelty.

The food and service were excellent, leaving us feeling more optimistic about the longer leg of the journey to Perth. Only Ella had managed to get a little sleep on the first flight, so we were hoping everyone would crash on this one. Thankfully, we all got a good amount of sleep during the middle of the flight, and after resisting the urge to constantly check the flight map for updates, we began our descent into Perth in the early evening of Wednesday, October 1st. We jumped straight into a cab and headed to our hotel, the Ibis Styles in East Perth.

Excited to have arrived and feeling peckish we wondered the Perth streets for some food. One of those classic scenarios where we half expected to come back empty handed given the time of night. We got lucky and found a Chinese restaurant still serving, can’t remember what we ordered but it made us happy. We then wandered back to the hotel for the first night!

We woke up late the next morning at about 11. Missed breakfast in the hotel but Lauren headed out and managed to find a coffee shop for our first ‘Flat Whites’ and some yummy banana bread.

Once we finally got moving, we made our way to Kings Park. I hadn’t realized it was bigger than Central Park. We only explored a small section, but the wildflowers, trees, and open space were exactly what we needed to soak in where our journey was beginning.

We had lunch and then headed to the Naturescape kids’ playground, a space created to inspire unstructured, nature-based play in a bushland setting.

Needless to say the kids loved it.

As Perth is such a beach city, we couldn’t help jumping in an Uber and heading to the coast, we had a quick dip at Cottesloe, before heading back to the hotel.

We have a lot of catching up to do to properly document all the amazing places and experiences we have done so far in Western Australia. We’re heading to Tasmania on Monday, October 27th, and hopefully, we’ll find some time to work on it then.