Perth
We arrived late afternoon and were surprised to find our
hotel was serviced apartments, but it had a bar restaurant in the same building,
with several other restaurants in the area. We looked around but weren’t very
impressed, it was a newish up market area but we settled on an Italian a few
hundred yards away.
Next day we picked up our car, usual issue with insurance,
so paid $A30 per day to cut out the risk of having to pay $A3,300 if we had to
be towed in for any reason.
We drove to Freemantle and spent ages finding a parking spot since Western Australia has
almost no on street disabled spaces; you have to pay and get double the time.
After a look around the town centre, this was developed
quite a time before Perth
itself and is a very characterful area with some lovely cafes.
Down to the busy harbour with it’s lighthouse at
the end of a mole and some sculptures of fishermen.
We had a late lunch of fish and chips at Cicerello’s which
boasted the best fish and chips in Western Australia,
they weren’t bad but there are better in Chelmsford.. The owner come over to chat seeing me doing a Sudoku and
said he couldn’t get his head round them.
There was a replica boat of those
used by the first settlers, how they managed up to a six month voyage going
round the Cape of Good Hope and sailing across
the Roaring Forties is beyond me. Behind the restaurant was another sculpture
entitled Coastguard and some wag has placed an empty soft drink bottle in it.
We had a look around the Marina
which still has a working fishing fleet, and as we were leaving saw the oddest
ship I have ever seen, it is a car carrier travelling to and from China and Japan.
The next day we travelled north to the Caversham Wildlife Park in a just being built suburb of
Whiteman some 30 miles from central Perth.
They had a pretty wide range of Australian fauna, the only major one missing
was the Cassowary even they were advertised, their enclosure was empty.
Needless to say we took loads of pictures but I have
attached only a few.
Only Wombat we saw alive, but fast asleep.
Koala awake just with Gwen
Possum
Dingo
Kookaburra
Albino Wallabies and a Joey
Kangaroos in their favourite daytime spot.
We tried to find a town on the coast called Hillarys, which
we knew had a Boat Harbour but the satnav wasn’t very helpful just dropping us
of by a shopping Centre which was supposed to be the Hillarys town centre. Some
travelling around and we found Ocean Road and
eventually the harbour, which is a marina with a little resort attached, even a
small sandy beach.
The next day we drove down to Rockingham some 40 miles south
of Perth and visited Penguin Island
using a five minute ferry. The island is home to both a colony and a show of
the Little Penguin which is the world’s smallest penguin.
The Little Penguins put on a good show, but most of them
were either not hungry or tired as they just sat on the rocks.
There was a sandbar connecting the mainland to the island
but there were many signs warning of the dangers, even of lives lost, some
people still used it however.
We had a very nice late lunch at an Italian Restaurant on
the front of Rockingham and then made our way further south to Mandurah, which
like Hillarys is a Marina with a bit of a resort attached, probably used the
same architect. They had added some sculptures as well.
On our last day we went first to Barrack St Quay and took a
journey along the Swan River to Freemantle, getting a decent view
of the CBD; to the non Aussie speakers this is
the Central Business District.
The shores of the Swan
River have loads of apartments,
marinas and some of the most expensive properties in Australia,
the house with the Orange roof being just one;
over half of the other buildings in the photo are part of a single estate.
The police have a nice office by the river along with an
expensive looking boat.
Gwen got to sit next to the captain and hold the wheel, but
we were safe enough there was plenty of searoom.
After our return we went around the town using the City’s
free bus network which went to all the central area and spent some time in the
Murray Street Mall, where children were playing in the fountains.
Saying goodbye to Australia tomorrow and off to Singapore.
