So I would have LOVED to have gone on a special babymoon before our little poppet arrives, but the relaxing beach type babymoon I always wanted was made a bit difficult by the fact that the ZIKA virus seems to have spread everywhere that we would want to go within a decent flight time!

Luckily, we had planned a trip to WA a while back as we have never been there before, and it was a good halfway meeting point for Jay's cousin and his fiance, who now live in Singapore. It is the same time for us to fly from Sydney to Perth as it is for them to fly from Singapore to Perth - crazy!

So being cautious me, I obviously read up on whether it is safe to fly when pregnant etc and the majority of all my research gives the thumbs up, with the best time being within the second trimester. The important one was from my obstetrician however, who gave the initial thumbs up to flying, with the proviso that everything was all good nearer the time, in which case he would give me the letter of good health for the airline if required.

All good at the last checkup so off we go to Perth with my letter in hand :-)

Again, cautious me, so looked up all you are meant to know about flying when pregnant! It's basically all common sense, but totally not what I'm used to when flying lol!

I'm used to avoiding using airplane bathrooms (and hence not drinking much fluid), trying to sleep as much as possible, and avoiding moving from my seat. Being pregnant, you are advised to drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration (which in turn comes with using the bathroom more often!), and also to get up and stretch your legs every hour or so, to help prevent DVT.

You are at higher risk of DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis, when pregnant and are advised to wear support stockings to keep good circulation and relieve swollen veins. Now I understand the benefit of these stockings but honestly, they are the ugliest stocking ever!! Part of this is to do with the fact that they generally only come in a 'nude' or black colour. 'Nude' not really being nude for me, especially given how thick the stockings are lol! Anyway, the point is that they are an important part of flying when pregnant, so fashion took a back-seat on this occasion!

The flight itself was okay but not the most comfortable I have to say. Perth is actually a 5.5 hour trip on the way, and I found that after 2 hours, I was starting to get a back ache, and my ribs were starting to hurt. The ribs hurting is actually a new development and I think it happens because as the baby is growing and my belly is getting bigger, everything is getting pushed up and getting squished - joy! It's actually very painful and quite uncomfortable, but nothing that can be done about it apparently. I couldn't wait to get off the flight in the end. I now understand why short haul flights are suggested over anything longer - it's just too uncomfortable (well at nearly 25 weeks anyway, but i'm sure it would be better a bit early on in the second trimester)

After the flight? I actually felt quite achey in the legs for a good few hours, but with a little leg massage from the husband, it soon wore off the next day. If that's to do with pregnancy or just a bad flight, I don't know. It was a slightly shorter flight on the way home, at 4 hours, and though I still got the back ache and ribs hurting, it was a bit more comfortable than on the way over.

Perth itself is beautiful. So spacious compared to what I'm used to in the UK, and also Sydney. We had a day where it poured with rain and it was really very cold, which I never even thought happened in WA, but other than that, pretty blue skies, with a bit of a chill. We were prepared for that though so all good :-) We did a bit of touristy stuff such as visiting the Bell Tower and Elizabeth Quay, Kings Park, Freemantle etc. In our own pace, with no rushing - great :-)

We also had a couple of days in Margaret River, which is really beautiful. The scene was set when we stopped off for a bit of tasting and lunch at Houghton's on the drive. You may or may not know that Margaret River is known for wine tasting, so I was of course designated driver for some of the time, mostly after there was alcohol available! I managed to find a little place that did nougat tasting, called Bettany's and they actually also had non-alcoholic wine tasting there, so thumbs up from me! This was followed by Voyager and Leeuwin - reviews from my travel companions were great. We actually had an absolutely amazing lazy lunch at Leeuwin and ran out of time to visit anywhere else - a sign of great food and company when you lose track of time :-)

The whole trip was pretty much overtaken by eating :-). We had some absolutely outstanding food in Perth, Scarborough (where our Air BnB was) and Margaret River. What more do you need??!!

It's funny because we are obviously pregnant and the other couple are newly engaged, so our conversations were around babies and weddings - a year ago this would never have happened! How things can change so quickly haha!! It's funny because I can't wait for them to get married and they can't wait for the baby to come - it's just a shame we are in different countries - I'm working on changing that though :-)

Another Aussie location ticked off the list. Would I go there again? Absolutely. I wouldn't say you could overly pack your days with things to do, but if you are looking for a place to explore casually, get a bit of downtime, and see some incredible sunsets, then WA is great. The downside from Sydney is that you can't really do weekend away there because the flight time is just that little bit too long. I think it could be a place we could go to with the baby for sure, so we will see you again WA :-)

It's amazing the difference you can see between Sydney and Perth, even though in the same country - even down to how people drive! WA drivers are totally chilled, not really in a hurry to go anywhere at all. I heard that the police are quite strict on speeding, and that may have something to do with it, but we were really shocked at how people just kept to the speed limit. Obviously we NEVER go over the speed limit so not sure why I'm shocked at all really ;-)

It hit me as we were on the flight home that this was the last flight we were taking as just us (for quite a while anyway). The first of the lasts - I won't lie, it scared me! I looked at Jay and a had a quick flashback of all the travel we have done together. It's been a good run for quiet, carefree travelling. Bring on the drama, noise, screams and nappy bags lol!!