Take to the Perth Hills

I like Kalamunda a lot. I enjoy that I can just drive up the hill and feel like I'm in a big country town.

The undulating streets around Mead, Haynes and Railway are great to walk. Wind blows through the eucalypts, picking up their scent, and sways the beds of blood-red and sunny-yellow rosebushes.

I enjoy that there's a cafe around nearly every corner, that the coffee smells great and they are busy - inside and at tables out on the footpath.

I love being able to lose myself among the pages and chapters and volumes of Pickwick's bookshop and how the Englishman who owns it is proud to have a copy of The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thesiger (in Kalamunda!) because he has a special interest in the great explorer. We both have time to chat.

It's great that the Bibbulmun Track starts there - or ends there, if you're from Albany - and that I can wander along as far as I want and listen to the rustle of the trees and squeaks and chirps of twenty-eight parrots.

I love how the beautiful stone and wooden visitor centre with its high, arched Colorbond roof just fits right in and has a shed-load of ideas, walking maps and history books. Not just on Kalamunda - Perth Hills Visitor Centre is a gateway. There's information about things to do down south and a big free booklet on days full of activities out Kondinin, Hyden and Wave Rock way - walks, historic sites, places to stay.

It's 175 years since Benjamin Robins took land in the area and it was subsequently settled in waves as timber was cut and orchards planted. A tramway to the Canning River was constructed, followed by the Zig Zag Railway which carried timber from Canning Mills to Midland Junction.

The visitor centre is part of the Zig Zag Cultural Centre. But memories of the railway don't just live on in name. Out the back is the Kalamunda History Village - in what was the Upper Darling Range Railway Station, built in the 1890s on the Zig Zag line. There's an old locomotive which laboured up and down the line for 49 years, the State school which closed in 1970, two train stations, a shed, the old post office and a settler's house. This was the heart of a community; now the community holds the Zig Zag Cultural Centre close to its heart. A sense of the past bolted on to the present and future.

And I love how I only need a couple of hours up my sleeve to head back up the hill for this complete change of scene.

But next time I might take a little longer - there are some tempting choices of places to stay overnight.

Amid those rosebush-sprinkled streets is Pete and Jo Guilbert's Rosebridge House. It, too, is part of Kalamunda's heritage and will stay that way. The house was built in the 1920s, and has since been beautifully restored, maintaining its colonial feel with jarrah floors, wood panelling and big verandas. There are six bedrooms, each with an ensuite, queen-size bed and French doors that open on to the verandas, lush gardens and pool.

Guest can take breakfast on the veranda, enjoying the birdsong, or in the dining room which fills with morning sun.

The Rose Room and the Summer House have two-person spas and all rooms have a bar fridge, tea-and-coffee-making facilities, DVD, TV and wireless internet.

A Japanese ryokan is a surprise find in the Hills outside Perth but Wabi Sabi guesthouse fits in just nicely. For the concept of Wabi Sabi draws on Zen Buddhism and has evolved to refer to a spirit of simple peacefulness and tranquillity in tune with nature combined with an "aged beauty". This is manifest in the guesthouse, gardens, teahouse, koi fish pond and serenity of the Kalamunda bush.

The ryokan is a true retreat; guests enter through an Edo period sliding gate into a traditional garden. Green tea or Japanese iced coffee can be taken to the accompanying babble of the koi pond. Guests can experience an elaborate tea ceremony, entering the teahouse by crawling through a small door then witnessing the ritual preparation of whipped green tea.

The guestroom has an entry area, sitting room, a dining area, bedroom and an ensuite with bath. All the comforts are present - air-conditioning, fridge, television, DVD - but the aesthetic is very Japanese, with wood panelling, paper lanterns, zashiki dining with seating on cushions before a low table. Guests receive yukata robes and wooden geta shoes to use when walking through the gardens. Breakfast is included: miso soup with wakame seaweed, shallots and tofu, omelette, rice, marinated fish, and sweet-and-sour mountain plum with pickled vegetables. Breakfast has nothing on the banquets that can be prepared; it could take a couple of nights to polish one off.

A day trip can make a relaxing overnight stay, allowing two bites of the cherry - no rushing around, just taking the time to enjoy. And there is a host of ideas for one, two and three-night getaways and tips for photographing your WA holiday in our special publication, Short But Sweet, in _The Weekend West _next Saturday, November 15. Don't miss this 40-page magazine - it's all you need for great short breaks.