Australia – Part 6

Wednesday 21st September

Another day another city, this time Perth in Western Australia. We were lucky to be able to get up at our normal time, have breakfast and finalise our packing before checking out of the Grand Chancellor and making our way to the airport for our flight west. We enjoyed our time in Brisbane immensely, it was a much more relaxed city than we expected, but having seen and experienced enough of it, it is time to move on.

On arrival at the airport, after being picked up by our driver, we got through check in and security with ease then spent the time waiting for our flight with our books. The flight went very well, although it was a 6 hour flight and not 4 hour as we had thought, we had forgotten about the 2 hour time difference in Western Australia.

We were picked up at the airport and made our way to the Pan Pacific hotel in the city centre to check in for our stay here, once in our room we unpacked and had a quick call with Graeme and my cousin Betty who lives nearby, we then went out for a look around our surroundings. Unfortunately it had started raining on our arrival but we still managed to see a bit of the city before choosing somewhere in Globe Lane for dinner and a beer, before returning to the hotel.

Thursday 22nd September

As it was the Australian national day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, a lot of shops were closed or only opened on Sunday hours, despite this we had a super day.

We went to visit the Visitor Centre in town to pick up a city map to find that we were just in time to join a guided orientation walking tour of the city, off we set with our knowledgeable guide Patricia, to visit all the main point and locations, with her explaining how to travel about using the excellent public transport system, which is totally free within the city, this was a wonderful way to spend a morning. Coincidentally the tour ended near the Little Island Brewery where we had to stop and try one of their ales, which were very nice indeed, whilst there, we bumped into and had a chat to a couple who were visiting Australia from Hamilton.

Once the tour had ended we decided to buy some picnic food and visit Kings Park and the Botanic Gardens for lunch, we really enjoyed an afternoon lazing away for a couple of hour in such beautiful surroundings, as it is spring here all the wildflowers are coming into bloom providing a colourful display. In it’s elevated position the park also gave us some great views of Perth and the Swan River, again this was a wise choice of a way to spend an afternoon.

In the evening we went into town to meet with my cousin Betty, her daughter Adrienne and her family, Cameron, Katie and their partners Georgia, Kaylum and Katie’s toddler Noah, unfortunately, Adrienne’s husband Craig was feeling ill and couldn’t make it. Adrienne had booked us all into a really good Chinese restaurant called Uncle Billy’s and we had a great time catching up on each others news and just having a good old blether. We then dropped them off at the station for their return home to Mandurah and we used a free bus back to the hotel. Despite the reason for the public holiday, we had an other wonderful day.

Friday 23rd September

Following yesterday’s orientation tour, we returned to the visitor centre in town to take up their street art walking tour, although I had done this 4 years ago, I thought it would be good to do it again, this time Joan, our guide, approached it differently, with slightly more emphasis on the sculptures. It was good to see that almost all of the good murals in Wolf Lane and Globe Lane still remained.

For our afternoon adventure we bought a train ticket and headed out to Cottesloe Beach where we had heard that there was a display of sculptures created for a Sculptures by the Sea project, we did see some of them but the main attraction was having a lazy day on the beach and one of our picnic lunches. On our return to the city we went over to the Art Gallery of Western Australia to the roof top terrace to see the sculptures there, coincidentally there happened to be a bar there so we had our first beer of the day there.

We returned to the hotel and decided that we would just stay there for the evening to have dinner and to prepare for Saturdays trip.

Saturday 24th September

Up and at ’em this morning ro get to the ferry terminal in time to catch the Rottnest Express over to the island, the boat, a large catamaran, gave us nice cruise down the Swan River to the port of Fremantle, where we stopped to pick up more passengers. Once out in open water, the sea got choppier, which caused problems for some on board.

On arrival on the island we took advantage of the hop on hop off island explorer bus before heading to a local bistro for lunch. After lunch we strolled through the main town, called Settlement, watching the little Quokkas wandering about. We then went for a run on the islands little railway to visit a wartime gun emplacement, it certainly was a feat of engineering in getting all the parts there and building it in the first place, by the time we returned to the Settlement it was time to board the ferry back to Perth.

On our orientation tour we heard of an Illumination display at the ….. library after sunset, we went to see it only to find that it didn’t start until next week, whilst in the Northbridge area we went to Mr Ming’s BBQ place for a very good Chinese meal, one highlight of the Northbridge area on Williams Street we found was Cafe Pastels a place selling genuine Portuguese custard tarts, we had no option but to test them , they were very good indeed, just gooey enough with crisp pastry, this finished off another great day in Australia.

Sunday 25th September

This morning we took the train to Fremantle, the train was mobbed due to the Perth Royal Show being on nearby. Once in Fremantle, or Freo as it’s called locally, we had a great time wandering around this pretty cool town, covered in very good street art. Dan had sent us the names of some of the coolest streets in the world that we could visit, which we did, however we both felt that the whole town of Freo could be added to that list, it’s a pretty cool place.

For lunch we eventually managed to get some Aussie pies from the Fremantle Market before continuing our wanders. We than took one of the free CAT buses to South Fremantle to visit the spectacular murals on the East-West Designs warehouse, a place where they sell quirky furniture and decor items, both the frontages on South Terrace and South terrace are covered in fun humorous murals created by Graeme Miles Richards in 2013, it was so good to see that they were still there, it’s worth watching the linked YouTube video to see how it was created Finally, no visit to Freo is complete without a visit to the Little Creatures Brewery, producer of one of Graeme’s favourite beers, so we had to make a pilgrimage there to test the product, it was very good indeed

Later in the day we met up again with Betty, Adrienne and Craig for a farewell dinner, we were booked into Benny’s, a restaurant near Craig’s Camera House shop, the mea,l and especially the company, was very good, it was a pleasure to meet with them again. Craig wes still a bit ill and receiving intravenous antibiotics which left him a bit groggy, so we finished off early leaving us plenty of time to catch the train back to Perth.

Monday 26th September

Yet another public holiday here in Australia, this time for the King’s Birthday, so once again we had closed shops and 10-15% surcharges on purchases. We had planned to do a Swan Valley wine tour today or tomorrow and after checking online we went to the booking office only to be told that they only run them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and that they do not run them during the week, we were extremely disappointed as this was not mentioned anywhere on the brochure or on their website.

Feeling adventurous, we researched how to get out to the area on our own and quickly headed for the train station to take us out to Guildford where the Swan Valley visitor centre is located. The staff in the centre were very friendly and helpful providing us with maps and suggested walking routes which we followed to take us up into the valley to visit vineyards in Benara region and the Funk Cider farm where we stopped for lunch, again, as it was a public holiday many of the places were closed but we enjoyed the walk in the nice sunshine.

We returned to the city getting off the train in the Northbridge area where we saw some remarkable street art, which will be appearing in the street art section of the site shortly, unfortunately the Portuguese Tart cafe, the other reason we wanted to revisit the are was closed for the public holiday. A free CAT bus took us back to the hotel a bit weary but happy to have had a fun day.

Tuesday 27th September

A morning trip to a nearby laundrette started the day for us, this meant that we were due to depart Perth quite soon, this time Lava, the laundrette was a ultra modern facility that is fully automated and very speedy and we both enjoyed a bit of quiet time with our books whilst waiting.

To try and satisfy Jim’s search for the perfect Aussie pie, we visited the renowned Mary Street Bakery outlet near our hotel for lunch, Jim’s verdict was that it was one of the best pies he has had whilst here, nice crisp flakey pastry, loads of chicken and veg filling with a nice little sauce on the side, he said he much preferred Aussie pies to the UK versions.

We then jumped onto one of the CAT buses to take us to the Matagarup Bridge where we had looked at the zip wire running from the top of it, we found that we were unable to do it as, over 70’s, we were too old.

Fortunately for us, situated next the spectacular Optus Stadium and inside The Camfield, reputed to be Australia’s largest pub, was the Bevy Brewery, and to keep Fiona back in Hamilton happy, we had to try out a schooner of their fine ale.

Once back in the city centre we went exploring to find a restaurant suitable for our last night in Australia, it’s strange that over here most restaurants do their business at lunchtime and shut very early in the evening, this made our choice difficult, eventually, we chose the Grand Lane Fish House, a traditional fish restaurant, since we would be eating mainly Asian food in Singapore.

One of the biggest surprises we found in Western Australia, we couldn’t meet Dan’s Challenge, there is no Starbucks in WA and we couldn’t find a Lego Store either. But that was one of the few problems we encountered in Australia.

We returned to the hotel to finish our packing and to reflect on our time in Australia, we’ve had a great time, each city, state and region provided us with new and exciting things to see and do, and there were a few adventures and surprises along the way but we certainly enjoyed them all.

Roll on Singapore.

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