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Published: December 2nd 2008
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he didn't like having his photo taken
I took this at 5am on the first morning, he gave me a look as if to say, "oh piss off tourists, can't you see i've got a hard day at the office tomorrow fishing" Fremantle is a laid back beach and harbour town, its full of the young and the dreadlocked, and the kool and the rich, so there's obviously no place for me. But that's OK because we're in a very nice apartment overlooking the port, albeit on the edge of town and away from the kool downtown area where our very presence must embarrass and annoy the under 25's.
We got off to a bad start here in Fremantle. The flight got in at 2am and we'd imagined it would get in closer to the morning hours, this left us a long time until we picked up the keys for the apartment at 2pm, long enough to warrant getting a room right there and then as we were tired from the 27 hours travelling already, this is what you get buying the cheapest airline tickets. Lynn rang a couple of backpacker hostels from the airport but they didn't pick up the phone, so we took a chance and headed into Freemantle in a taxi looking for a room. By now its nearly 4am and all the backpacker hostels were not answering the door and the one that did, the 3rd one I tried,
pelican
he hated me told me they'd been turning people away all day and night, so I knew that was the end of that.
It was chucking out time from the clubs in the main street which was filling up with pissed gap year kids, and by that stage I was in no mood for it, so looking at a street map we headed for the port beach where it was much quieter. By this point I must admit that although I knew downtown Fremantle is no Manchester City Centre at nighttime I didn't feel great about being sat in the dark with all the bags etc, then and after a bit Lynn started to feel the chill a little (I take such good care of her)
But within about half an hour the light started to creep into the sky, the cloud level here is higher than in the UK giving the impression of a bigger sky, the quality of the light at dawn and the effect of the sunrise lighting up the clouds was giving us something to look at and think about other than sleep. Pretty soon it warmed up and the local birds started to skwalk, and It all looked
Fremantle Beach
A FREE bus that circuits the city takes you there and brings you back for, FREE. Not sure if i've already mentioned this but the bus is FREE. and felt a whole lot better. Got a coffee in the town and relaxed, but still by the afternoon picking up the keys for the apartment it felt like finishing some sort of endurance test.
Best thing we did here in Fremantle was visit Rottnest Island about half an hour ferry ride away. The whole Island is national park, indigenous trees and bushes ive never seen elsewhere. Lots of inland shallow lakes and picture postcard bays and coves (see photos) that we got to by cycling round the island. Going midweek and early in the day you can exit any other people and get a lot of it to yourself. Lynn was vocal in being against my idea of cycling, thinking there might be hills on the island to cycle up, and even more vocal about getting up at 6am to get the first ferry over, but I knew that that was an excellent idea cos then your not cycling around in the mid day sun. During that day while free wheeling round the island Lynn grudgingly admitted I was indeed right to drag her out of bed and hire bikes, I was going to push on and get an
apology in writing off her, but I accepted the verbal apology, this time.
Ive not been on a bicycle contraption for years and was surprised I could still remember how to do it, it was just like riding a bike.
The Aussies are officially lightweights and that's why they can't make any decent larger. VB, Hahn, Tooheys etc, all rubbish, is what I thought last time we visited Oz. But here they've got micro breweries, half brewery/half pub that do some good beers if a little expensive, one of the best being the 'Little Creatures Brewery' the food looked good although we never ate there, and the beer garden faces the sea, you could set fire to your wallet in an afternoon in here easily. But thinking of the budget we didn't, but its OK, good wine here in the offy is half the price of back home and there was a balcony in the apartment.
Other good things are the sea food places down at the port, shellfish, all types of fish, fish and chips but made with fresh fish fillet and thin tasty batter, eat in or take away and cheap-ish
In the 7 years since we were
port area
fish and chips, mmmm last in Australia I'd forgot about how what generally amenable and upbeat characters not all but some of the Aussies are. Some sort of mindless optimism motor operating them as though they are sure that everything gonna work out A-Ok that day, and every day after. Its not a bad thing, I laughed to myself when I ordered a second beer in a pub and the bar man said "good on ya mate!"
Also there's a general civility between people that's not always apparent in Manchester, example: if you do some simple thing like hold a door open for someone they will always thank you for it here, we were on a bus stood up one day and a boy offered his seat to Lynn, not big things but nice to see.
(click on the photos to enlarge)
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Tim Vaughan
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memories of Poland
Hiya, your story of waiting for the day to arrive reminds me of the time we were in Krakow (drunk on Bison Grass), not having a clue where we were and waiting for the trams to start running to take us home. The island looks gorgeous!!