Perth and Freemantle, Western Australia, Australia

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We arrived from Tasmania yesterday evening (flying from Hobart with a change at Adelaide) and caught the local bus to our accommodation which we had booked while waiting at Adelaide Airport. We had an excellent meal at a restaurant attached to the hotel.

The next morning we checked out and set off with our rucksacks to explore Perth. We walked through the shopping centre and down towards the colonial areas. We passed the Town Hall, the Cathedral, Government House, the Council House and arrived at the Supreme Court of Western Australia. We walked through the Supreme Court Gardens (which sported statues of Kangaroos) to Barrack Square Jetty. Here there was the Swan Bells Tower housing 12 of the original bells from St Martin in the Fields (London). The Swan Bells are a set of 18 bells hanging in a specially built 82.5-metre-high (271 feet) copper and glass campanile. They take their name from the Swan River which their tower overlooks. They are the second largest set of change ringing bells in the world, the largest being Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, which has nineteen bells.

We purchased river cruise tickets to Fremantle ( which the locals refer to as 'Frio') where the MSVG was due to arrive this morning. This was an excellent hour and a half cruise on the shallow Swan River where we passed the original Swan Brewery, The University of Western Australia, many yacht clubs and assorted flash pads. We arrived at Frio at 12.30 pm and re-embarked the MSVG where we had lunch before going ashore to explore Fremantle.

This was an interesting colonial settlement, the centre piece being the Fremantle Prison. Unfortunately we were not able to do the full tour as we were required to return to MSVG via immigration to clear customs (a requirement because we had jumped ship in Sydney). We did stay long enough in the information centre to discover that among the prisoners in 1873 was a certain Richard Gleaves from Lancashire convicted in Liverpool of horse stealing and sentenced to 7 years in Freemantle Prison. M's relatives made no appearance (D maintains that this is because there are not many Turnidges and M is sticking to the "we are whiter than white" contention). We briefly walked the streets and saw the Town Hall, did a short supply shop, and returned to the ship.

Frio may have been worth another half day and ditto the vineyards, but Perth itself is unexceptional (nothing to criticize but nothing to get excited about either). It is just an 'ordinary' city - even if it is the most remote city in the world.

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