Perth, Western Australia: Tomato Lake, Swan View Foreshore, Boatshed Restaurant, James Mitchell Park - Day 5

Tomato Lake Shelter and Boardwalk over the lake.

Tomato Lake, located in Kewdale, is a very special location for my family. Specifically my Dad (before he passed) and his partner, who Enigma and I were meeting at the park café for breakfast on day 5 of our Perth trip. While it's essentially just a nice place that they've been coming to for breakfast for years, my Dad also spread my Auntie's ashes at the lake when she passed a year before he did.

The café at the lake has been run by the same Asian family for more than 20 years, is mostly alfresco,  though there is a small undercover area next to the kitchen and ordering area. Obviously it's dog friendly and there is a large playground nearby for the kids.

Enigma and I both got full bacon, egg and toast breakfasts. I had a white tea with mine. The café is extremely popular and, while there is plenty of seating it still pays to get there early if you really want a table (otherwise bring a picnic blanket because there's plenty of grassed area to enjoy).

One of the lake viewing jetties at Tomato Lake.

After breakfast Enigma and I took the shorter walk around the lake... well partly. It's shorter because instead of going around the whole lake you cut across the board walk over the lake where there is a sheltered viewing point about halfway over.

My photos don't really do the park justice. It's a great place to stop for breakfast or lunch, and a nice walk too. A park where you'll see more Bin Chickens... I mean Ibis' in one place than you've ever seen before since the island in the middle of the lake is a nesting area for all manner of bird wildlife.

Swan View Foreshore

After our walk at Tomato Lake Enigma and I drove up to the Swan View foreshore, on the South Perth side of the river. This is basically parkland with walking/cycle trails, playgrounds, kiosks etc. that follow along the river bank. (While the park itself is free be prepared to pay for parking). 

We hadn't planned to do anything here other than to walk along the river with a nice city view in the background. Looking at Google maps we could see The Boatshed Restaurant and Café in James Mitchell Park (opposite the jetty) was within reasonable, but still considerable, walking distance of where we parked. We decided to head there for lunch.

View of Perth City from the South Perth foreshore, James Mitchell Park.

While this day was quite warm for most of it there was a light layer of cloud that took the edge off of what otherwise would have been a very warm walk in the sun along the river. Again, my photo of the city don't really do it justice. Beyond that, while the parkland on the section of the river we walked was nice and green there wasn't really anything particularly notable to see.

Our lunch at the Boatshed Café.
Photo by Enigma.

At the Boatshed Café Enigma had a kids Linguine that was huge, and I had a BLT sandwich (Turkish bread) with chips that was also quite large. Enigma got a chocolate milkshake that weirdly tasted more like strawberry and I got an iced coffee that was much improved after I added some sugar to get rid of the bitter edge of the fairly strong coffee they used.

After lunch we made our way back to the car and returned to our apartment for another relaxing afternoon by the pool (though we did have a few young kids enjoying the pool this time, but it was still fine and they weren't getting in anyone's way).

Since the point of this trip was mostly to catch up with family and to take a break, we wanted to make sure we set aside a few days of not really doing too much, but still doing enough touristy things to feel like a proper holiday.