Swan city

Back in Perth for the night before heading south to Albany on the coast, a 5-hour drive away. It's no cooler here, still around 30 degrees and very dry - I could see from the plane the huge area of black hills from the fires a few months ago. Yet up around Exmouth it was positively lush and green - which I suppose it would be, after 7 cyclones.

After the last one, the pool at the Novotel filled up with burrowing frogs self-evacuated from the beach, clogging up the filters. The gardener nearly binned them, but the nice waitress saved them and dumped them all in the lily pond.

It was bliss in that pool yesterday, floating with my hands behind my head, just my face above water - I could have nodded off, easy as, it was so warm and peaceful.

And now I'm in the city with traffic and buses and business suits and workers. It's actually a lovely city, but I'm glad to be heading out again tomorrow.