Perth
Kilometres 17948 - 18531 km
As we’d finished last week on a lull, it was only fitting that we start
this week by picking up the pace. Monday morning saw us head across town to
spend the day at Fremantle. The kids were excited to
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| Inside Fremantle Prison |
Tuesday was meant to be a little slower and it started that way. While
most of the family lazed around the van I went out to get a slow leaking tyre
repaired. About lunch time we headed out for an afternoon in Swan Valley, this
is a smaller version of the Barossa or Hunter Valley. A picturesque tourist
drive only 25km from Perth seems like another world away. We visited some
spectacular chocolate factories, an ice-creamery, a working honey farm and
tasted some very nice wines. Late in the afternoon we detoured into the Perth
hills where we stopped at V8 legend Peter Brocks fateful crash site. After a
moment reflecting on this legend of the sport we headed for home and a
well-deserved happy hour.
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| Oberon Class Sub - about to go below deck |
Wednesday was a scorcher in Perth. While many of our friends were
lashed by the severe weather back home we had temps of 35deg so we naturally headed
to the beach, more specifically the northern beaches. Starting at City beach
where the kids dipped their feet in the chilly water, we travelled north along
the coast stopping at Scarborough, Trigg and Sorrento beaches and finally the picturesque
Hillarys Boat Harbour which is a meca of expensive boutiques, eateries and a
kids amusement park. After checking out all the expensive boats for-sale, many
of which were worth more than the average house, we headed further to Joondalup
where a massive shopping plaza entertained us for the rest of the afternoon.
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| Old grape crusher - Swan Valley |
Thursday was a bit of a nothing day for us. We had the car booked-in to
have some suspension mods done so we were at the mercy of the mechanic and as
it turned out they pretty much had our car for the entire day. By the time we
got the car back we were happy just to return to the van.
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| Hillarys Boat Harbour & water park |
The tempo of Friday was go go go! We headed into the city just after
the peak hour rush and soon found some all-day parking. From there we jumped on
the free metro bus service. We used the 4 interconnecting bus routes to get
around the city, checking out many of the sights. Ethan and I headed to the
WACA sports ground where we got a tour of the facilities while the girls did
some retail therapy. After lunch we all did a tour of the Perth Mint, which is
where much of Australia’s gold is handled. Under heavy security the tour shows
you Australia’s largest existing gold nugget (Normandy Nugget – 25kg) and the
only Australian $1 million dollar gold coin. As night fell we stayed in the
city where The Mall comes alive with a variety world food stalls and buskers.
We had a quick bite to eat before headed to the Perth Arena where we watched the
Perth Wildcats defeat our own Wollongong Hawks in the National NBL series.
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| Ethan and I at the WACA |
After a late night we didn’t surface till late on Saturday. We eventually
got motivated and headed out to see more of the city sights. We drove to
Rockingham and the surrounding area where we had a look around before slowly
making our way back up to Fremantle. The place was a hive of activity, the Freo
markets (local lingo) were on and the endless mariners were buzzing with people
attending to their boats. Once again we spotted our boat of choice, only to see
it was owned by someone else…. By mid-afternoon a huge storm hit the city, it
forced us to take shelter as we watched the boats on the Swan River get smashed.
Unbeknownst to us at the time but our van park and surrounding suburbs wore the
brunt of the storm. We returned to the van to see the area covered in hail. It
looked like we’d had a dusting of snow with a few vans being damaged by the
hail, luckily we weren’t one of them. The inclement weather hung around for the
rest of the evening.
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| Lets go Hawks - Perth Arena |
Sunday was the first time of our trip that we’d woken to the sound of
rain, it was nice to lie in bed and enjoy the sound of rain falling on the van.
The kids however had other ideas and were soon up and armed with raincoats
headed off to play with other kids in the rain and puddles. Pretty typical of
kids who haven’t seen rain for so long…… By late morning we were heading to a
geocaching meet n greet with some of the local teams. Unfortunately the first
hour was spent huddled under a gazebo as the rain continued, but thankfully the
weather improved and so did the enjoyment of the event.
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| "Freo" Markets |
Our first week in Perth has been pretty much non-stop. We don’t want to
leave wishing we’d done or seen more. Who knows, maybe next week we might slow
down!
Until then, ciao
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