Australia

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After a leisurely breakfast, Nitin took Matt, me and Jess to Freemantle - lovingly known as Freo to the locals. It was the trendy part of town that had a bustling indoor market on weekends, a white sandy beach and oodles of cafes and fish and chip bars.

We browsed the markets and managed to buy lots of gifts for people back home. Afterwards we had a walk up to the prison and time ball (the ball used to be dropped at 1pm daily so that people on ships could work to the same clock - a cannon still fires but we were a bit late so missed it). There were lots of old photographs of Freemantle on display and history about life on the ships as this was their main entry point to WA. Matt was amused to see on an information board that one of the reasons that people got locked up in the prison was ‘disobedience’ and he told me they’d have locked me up and thrown away the key.

We enjoyed the journey back to Mindarie almost as much as the day out as Nitin drove us along the seafront road and we got great views of the ocean view houses along the coast. He also drove us to some newly released plots to show us how house buying works out here - you buy a plot, select a house style that you like by looking at different builder’s show homes (they’re all completely different) and when you’ve found one you take your ideas and develop them further with the builder until you agree on a plan. You can literally do almost anything. Most houses are four or five bedroom, and many have pools. All have an outdoor area for dining but it’s up to you whether to build a bigger house on your plot, leaving you less outdoor space. It was all really enlightening and we kept visualising ourselves sitting on the balcony of our ocean view villa by our pool sipping gin and tonics!

While browsing the internet later we were shocked to read a newsflash that somebody had been killed by a shark on the coast just south of Perth while out snorkelling for crabs. We’d almost forgotten about the threat of sharks as the stinger jellyfish seemed to be more of a threat in Australia, but it reminded us that the ocean is home to lots of things, including some that have very big teeth.

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Photos

Mosman Beach
This was on the way back to Mindarie. We had to stop to check out all of the kitesurfers, but given that there had been a shark attack not too far away I wasn't sure I'd want to give it a go!

The kitesurfers at Mosman
I was amazed that their lines didn't all get tangled up.