Gold, Prison, and loads of boats..

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On Friday I headed to the Perth Mint, where i got to see a chap make a gold bar worth about $250,000 and then melt it again, and i also had a gold coin made to mark my visit there. Unfortunately we were banned from taking photos inside. Part of the Mint is a shop selling a lot of jewellery made from Australian gold and opals, and you can also buy actual gold nuggets! I guess you could say i got carried away by how beautiful it all was and ended up buying myself 2 rings, and 2 pairs of earrings (one of each in 18ct white gold and normal 18ct gold). They say a diamonds are a girls best friend, but until i find a man to buy me diamonds, i'll compromise on opals which are a bit cheaper!! After touring the Mint and learning a lot about the history of the gold rush in Australia, and how gold is refined before it turns into the things that we buy, i enjoyed a scone and a pot of English tea in their tea rooms before having a wander around Perth.

That night i went on a City of Lights Cruise which was great fun as it had a big group of people from Australian National Bank there on a work night out. One of their guys decided to play "mother" when the desserts were brought out and he generously gave everyone a bit of everything. However he forgot to put some to one side for himself, which gave some cause to laugh at him. But what they didn't think about was the fact that he got to meet every single woman on the cruise... in hindsight he definitely had the last laugh!

The next day I went on a bus trip to see the sights of Perth and Fremantle. We went to Kings Park in Perth which was massive ( I think they said 1000 acres) and it was very pretty scenery running alongside the waters edge. We also saw the bells of St Martins - these were given by England to Australia a few years ago to mark their centenary, but they then spent $8million on a funky shaped building to house them, and they are now desperately trying to recoup this from charging tourists, but it has been running at a constant loss. I really liked Fremantle which is South of Perth. It is a coastal town with a large harbour where the container ships dock, plus lots of fishing boats with yummy fish and shellfish! It has a really nice feel to it and is easy to walk around without getting lost, or you can catch a free bus called an orange cat (Central Area Transit is what it stands for - but they do have a panther like creature as their logo). My first port of call in Fremantle was the prison. This has to be one of the highlights of my trip so far, as i love anything connected with crime or history and this was a combination of both. Fremantle Prison was built in the mid 1800's and it was a fully operational Prison right up until 1991. I found this a shocking fact, as when walking round on the 75 minute tour, I could not imagine that only 16 years ago, there were people existing in the prison, in high temperatures ( Perth was 39 degrees on the day i arrived!) with no electricity, and only 3 hot showers per week. The other days of the week they had cold showers, and they only had 2 sets of clothes per week - they changed on a Tuesday and a Friday! We also got to see the gallows which is where 44 people were hung until the death penalty was removed in 1984. I learned of a odd rule that apparently in England if you were to be hung, but for whatever reason you didn't die, you were given a reprieve and released. In Australia, they did things differently. The guide told us of a particularly unfortunate man, who was due to be hung, but when it came to his time, the rope snapped and he fell crashing onto the concrete floor beneath him. The hangman then placed a second rope on the gallows, and for the second time they attempted to hang the man, but the rope wasn't attached correctly, and so this time the man and the rope plummeted onto the concrete. This same rope was then put back up, and for the third time they hung him, but the rope snapped and for the third time he fell to the ground. On this, they declared it to be an Act of God, and that it was not meant to be his time to die, and they gave him an unconditional discharge and was allowed to walk free. (although not for long as he died in an accident the following year!). We also got to see how the cells have changed over the years as well as a couple of cells that have the most amazing pictures painted onto their walls by former inmates. Our guide (who randomly was from Cornwall of all places!) told us that one of the artistic inmates has since served his time, and that he regularly comes to the prison to see his paintings, and he has even brought his daughter to see them as he is so proud of his work! By now i have probably bored you sensless but I found it a fascinating insight into the past, and even bought a book on the history of the Prison, if anyone wants to read it when i get back ( I have already finished reading it!).

After the Prison, I went to the Fremantle Markets as everyone who has spoken to me about Fremantle has said "you have to go to the markets". Well, i went and it was nice, but how exciting can markets be?! The one market was selling fruit and veg - stall after stall all selling the same things (i would guess there must have been about 50 stalls) The nice part was that many of them had tasting trays where they sliced up one of every fruit for you to try - everything was so juicy and had so much flavour and given how much fruit i eat back home i was in my element! Trouble was i was flying the next day and you can't take fruit on domestic flights, so i only bought 4 nectarines. The other markets were the more traditional type with lots of tourist tat on them, and so after a quick wander round, i headed to the Maritime Museum where i saw LOTS of boats! From the first dug out boats, to a crude attempt by two 12 year olds at building a boat from corrugated steel, to Australia 2 (which won the Americas cup) and many boats in between. I loved it and it reminded me how much i have missed going out on the water last summer! How's the boat Mr Clarke??

I then headed back to Perth on a ferry cruiser and it was a relaxing end to a full week in Western Australia.

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