Forget Asia: the best stopover on the way to Europe is right here
The colours at Mettams Pool are outrageously enticing. The beach is a borderline blinding white, and the sea throws in the gamut of blues, teals and turquoises. A protective reef, about 1.5 metres high and perfect for explorative snorkellers, keeps the water serenely flat.
Outrageously enticing … Mettams Pool, near Trigg Beach.Credit: West Australia Tourism
Gently splashing around a natural lagoon, looking at starfish, is a pretty good way to tackle jet lag. It soothes the aches, pains and stiffnesses after a long economy class flight, and is exactly the sort of thing a stopover should be about.
Mettams Pool is to be found along the northern beaches of Perth, a city not generally considered as a stopover option. After all, the classic stopover cities tend to fit a mould. The likes of Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok are frenetic cultural bombardments. Bright lights, tall buildings, labyrinthine restaurant scenes and tightly packed markets.
They’re busy, energetic sensory overloads and, unless you tackle them very carefully, can become thoroughly exhausting.
This, of course, is the exact opposite of what most travellers need when creaking, befuddled and yawning after a long flight.
Perth, with its direct Qantas flights from London, Paris and Rome, is now a plausible stopover destination for East Coasters. And it’s an altogether more gentle, rejuvenating one.
Sure, you can spend a couple of days exploring the city’s bar scene and museum-hopping, but the West Australian capital’s strengths are outdoors under blue skies and a brilliant sun.
After an action-packed rampage around Europe’s great cities, it is perfectly reasonable to just spend a couple of days on the beach. On a Perth stopover, this is not just possible but downright glorious.
Perth’s beaches stretch for dozens of kilometres either side of the Swan River. Most are backed by satisfyingly wild-looking dunes, the sand gleams in the sun and the Leeuwin Current keeps the water surprisingly warm.
As close to ‘hectic’ as it gets… Scarborough Beach.Credit: West Australia Tourism
Of these beaches, Scarborough is as close as you’ll get to hectic. Several bars line up behind the Esplanade, while a carefully landscaped playground, skate park and pool perch by the dunes. Even at its most crowded, however, there’s no tussling for space, as the curve of white sand disappears off into the horizon.
Elsewhere, Coogee Beach comes with a remarkable gimmick. The Omeo shipwreck lies just beyond the shallows, its time-beaten mast still rising out of the water. It’s one of the easiest wreck snorkels on Earth, and it has been turned into the centrepiece of a much larger underwater trail.
A series of sculptures and unusual objects, such as a replica cannon and a railway wheel, have been dunked into the water off the beach. Most are between two-and-a-half and five metres below the surface, and combine to make a subaquatic art trail for snorkellers and divers.
Rottnest Island’s turquoise shoreline.Credit: West Australia Tourism
There’s more snorkelling to be enjoyed on what has become Perth’s international icon, Rottnest Island. Again, here’s a radically different take on a stopover. Urban grit and prestige museums are, it turns out, far less appealing than a day out on a car-free Indian Ocean island.
Gently pootling along on a bike between bays and pink salt lakes brings regular sightings of the island’s most famous inhabitants – the quokkas.
These notoriously cute marsupials have reached global fame through millions of selfies, and they seem very unperturbed by visitors trying to get into shot with them.
Pretty in pink... aerial view of Rottnest’s bubblegum-hued lakes.Credit: West Australia Tourism
They’re not the only animals on Rottnest, though. Chunky king’s skinks scuttle across the paths, Australian sea lions often lounge on some of the more far-flung beaches and the ferry journey across brings dolphins and breaching whales.
Nature is one thing that Perth majors in that other stopover destinations largely ignore. Go a little further south, and penguins and pelicans hang out around Rockingham. To the west, a short hop from the airport, the Perth Hills bring waterfalls and walking trails. To the north, Yanchep National Park offers plentiful kangaroos and caves with limestone decorations that twinkle like buffed jewels.
Botanical Garden, home to 3000 native plants and trees.Credit: West Australia Tourism
There’s even bushland in the heart of the city. Part of Kings Park is formal, with the Western Australian Botanic Garden nobly showcasing more than 3000 plants and trees native to the state. But much of it is left as only slightly tamed bushland, primed for blissful lazy strolling before emerging to panoramic views over the bulging Swan River.
Perth’s natural, wholesome outdoorsiness brings a level of physical and spiritual replenishment that you’re simply not going to get in, say, Doha or Tokyo. But Perth has another secret weapon – the indulgence of the Swan Valley.
The Bailey Brewing Co’s beer garden is a sprawling affair, perfect for slowly tasting summer ales and alcoholic ginger beers while children charge around a playground made from craftily converted old trucks.
Wineries just a short drive from the city at Swan Valley.Credit: West Australia Tourism
Beer isn’t really what the Swan Valley is famous for, mind. Western Australia’s oldest wine region is about 25 minutes from Perth Airport, and its wineries tend to specialise in beefy, heavyweight reds. The durif grape grows well, and hot conditions boost the alcohol content. It’s not going to take many tastings to feel strangely relaxed and mellow here.
Alongside the Swan Valley’s vineyards, a remarkable range of food and drink producers has sprung up. Old Young’s distils top drawer gins and vodkas. The Yahava Koffeeworks sources the highest quality coffee beans from perfectly sited plantations around the world. The Margaret River Chocolate Co outlet allows visitors to guzzle generous handfuls of free chocolate buttons while admiring a vast barn of multi-flavoured confectionary.
Arguably the most interesting producer, however, is the House of Honey. Here, the honeys come with a uniquely West Australian flavour, and are tasted by the spoonful. Staff wax lyrical about the healing properties of jarrah honey, while the karri honey is louchely smooth.
Sweet-tooth heaven… Margaret River Chocolate Company.Credit: West Australia Tourism
It’s worth being nosy, though, as the story behind how the honey is made is remarkable. The beekeepers drive hives around the state, putting them next to trees that are due to flower in the next year. It’s a big operation, with little margin for error. The karri tree, for example, only flowers once every ten years.
A Swan Valley tasteathon offers a different sort of indulgence to the lavish hotels of Abu Dhabi or opulent restaurants of Hong Kong. But it comes with a commodity that’s extra precious after being cramped up on a plane for hours – space.
That’s a critical factor in what makes Perth so different as a Kangaroo Route stopover. Unlike the competition, it never feels claustrophobic or intense. The air is clean, and there’s plenty of room to breathe it. Perth is the stopover for those who want to amble rather than hurtle, to refresh rather than stress. It’s also the only one you ought to pack a snorkel for…
DETAILS
Fly
Qantas offers connecting flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London, Paris and Rome via Perth. See qantas.com.au
Stay
The Ramada by Wyndham Vetroblu at Scarborough Beach offers apartments from $152 a night, room only. See wyndhamhotels.com
Do
Mettams Pool, see cityofstirling.wa.gov.au
Coogee Maritime Trail, see cockburn.wa.gov.au
Rottnest Fast Ferries to Rottnest Island leave from Hillarys Boat Harbour, which has free parking. See rottnestfastferries.com.au
Kings Park, see bgpa.wa.gov.au
Bailey Brewing Co, see baileybrewingco.com.au
Old Young’s, see oldyoungs.com.au
Yahava Koffeeworks, see yahava.com.au
Margaret River Chocolate Co, see chocolatefactory.com.au
House of Honey, see thehouseofhoney.com.au
More
The writer travelled as a guest of Tourism Australia and Tourism Western Australia.
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