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Published: November 8th 2006
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First of all we are very happy and excited to announce that Katie (daughter) and her beau Andrew got engaged a couple of weeks ago - and Andrew was apparently quite the romantic for the proposal. (Just the news a broke and unemployed mother and step-dad needed to hear!! At least we have about 14-15 months to save for wedding)
Now as I mentioned last blog - we stopped at the Pinnacles on the way to Perth (about 270km north). These were much more spectacular than we expected and because it was later in the afternoon, the sun falling across the limestone pillars transformed it into a lunar landscape. These pillars were formed by limestone deposits setting around the root system of ancient trees and then over time, the trees died and continuing erosion of the soil left the hardened limestone pillars. It was here that Wes decided that he was the best option for a Steve Irwin replacement because when I told him that you can pick up the bob-tailed skinks between the front and back legs - he practiced on 4-5 innocent unsuspecting skinks and decided that he was good at it. (see photo) Hopefully this new found
skill will not get expanded to snakes and crocodiles, as I am no Terry Irwin and prefer diamonds and pearls to horrible reptiles (which I still haven’t received in case you are concerned!)
On to Perth we went - actually we stayed in a Caravan Park in Fremantle, 25km south where it’s closer to the water, with lots of nice shops, restaurants and BARS.
Because of the size of our caravan the only site big enough here was an ensuite site and even though we have our own on board, this was a luxury because it was much larger and saved cleaning ours. Perth has an extensive series of bike paths, and so we unloaded the bikes and put them between the caravan and the ensuite. We have left the bikes alongside the caravan many times before, but the fact that we were now in the big bad big-smoke hadn’t sunk in, because when we got up in the morning, my bike and helmet were gone. It was bad timing as we had just paid to have the back wheel straightened after I buckled it when the gears jammed on the last ride. But we were lucky that
they didn’t also take Wes’s. So our first day and a half was spent checking the pawn shops, reporting it to police and buying another bike - a $400 expense we didn’t need, but something to get over and move on from. (I really wanted a new bike and my plan worked!! Wes doesn’t read the blogs, so Santa won’t come to anyone who tells him!)
We booked for 7 nights and in no particular order…….one day we cycled 29km to the city via the coastal bike paths and visited the Perth Mint and the Swan Bells. I didn’t even know the Swan Bells existed. It was a bicentenary project and 12 of the bells are actually from St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar square in London and have existed from before the 14th century, recast in the 16th century by Elizabeth I and again in 1725. They were used to celebrate many historic events such as the English victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588, the homecoming of Captain James Cook in 1771, and World War II victory at El Alamein in 1942 to name a few. They have also rung in the New Year at Trafalgar Sq for
more than 275 years and celebrated the coronation of every British monarch since King George II in 1727. How ‘bout that for some history! And here they are stuck in a backwater like Perth (just joking). Bloody fascinating.
After viewing the bells, we caught the train (with bikes) to Cottesloe Beach (famous Perth landmark) and had a nice lunch and a ride around. We then rode the 12km back to Fremantle with a 25knot headwind. Not pleasant and very hard work. At the end of this day we had ridden 50km and I could not feel my thigh muscles. The next day, we rode the bikes 4km to Fremantle railway, got on a train to the city (with bikes) and caught the Rottnest Island Ferry. It also leaves from Fremantle but you don’t get the hour long cruise up the Swan River for $10 extra then. The ferry ride takes 1 hr 28mins from Perth and on arrival at Rottnest we had a ride around the townsite, had some amazing meat pies for lunch and proceeded to cycle around the whole island. For more than half this time we had a strong headwind again and there were LOTS of
hills. We loved the island and got to pat a Quokka which is a very cute little animal a cross between a small kangaroo and a rat (if you can imagine that). Had a beer at the pub and jumped on the ferry back to Fremantle where we rode home (past the Little Creatures Brewery where we stopped for an ale). A total of 40km. By this time I was like Donkey in Shrek… “I can’t feel my feet. Wait!... I don’t have any feet!!
We also had our 2nd best Indian meal ever (including the great UK Indian Restaurants) at an Indian Restaurant in Fremantle. YUM. We even drove to the cosmopolitan inner city suburb of Northbridge to get some of the same chilli lime pickle they served.
The rest of our time was spent wandering around some fantastic shops - with plenty more variety than the $2 shops so prevalent in the country towns. We found the most amazing deli in Fremantle with all manner of foodstuffs from every corner of the world. Needless to say, cocktail hour that afternoon was suberb (from what I remember).
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Hutcho
Daniel Hutchinson
My Home Town
Reading about my home town brought a smile to my face. Glad that you found Little Creatures, Fremantle's number one attraction and server of some of the greatest beer in the world. Daniel