Day 102 – 18/3/14 – Fremantle WA

With just a day to go before Nana and Shelby head home we headed into Perth to see what it had to offer and were pleasantly surprised. Like Freo, Perth had a free bus system around town so we got a park near one of them and went a touring. One problem was that when we were getting into the truck we had omitted to check if Sam was wearing anything on his feet! So a barefooted Sambo skipped along behind completely unconcerned.

First stop was the WACA where the tours are usually 20 something dollars. However the lovely lady at the counter was happy to get her husband to give us a quick look at the oval for free. Wally was pretty keen for a chat and enjoyed our enthusiasm even taking us down onto the oval for a picture.

We headed back into the centre of town where we got Sam his 5^th pair of thongs for the trip! The Architcture of Perth is a stunning as it is varied, from shimmering sky scrapers, to iron laced pubs and even an old English lane. We checked out St George’s Catherdral and the Swan Bells then I went back to pick up the truck while the ladies had a quick catch up with Andrew Tome one of De’s brothers childhood mates, who now lives in Perth.

With lunch on board we headed to Kings Park for a picnic. I loved the lookout which has a stunning view over the downtown Perth as well as the Swan River, which looks more like a massive lake. Everywhere you  look in Perth is water and while it sometimes reminds me of the Gold Coast with McMansions on every corner (in the western suburbs at least) the sky scrapers are limited mostly to the city so it feels a bit softer, a bit more welcoming!

We had lunch at the bottom of a lookout inspired by the shape of the DNA helix that is on the highest point in Perth. The lookout has 100 steps, as counted by Sam, and gave great views up the Swan River to the East, Rottnest Island to the West, Freo to the south and to the north, but I haven’t been there yet so I have no idea what I was looking at!

Refuelled we headed to Cottesloe Beach where, by chance, there was a Sculptures by the Sea festival on. Most of the sculptures were a touch on the alternate for my liking some of them were pretty cool. The beach its self is beautiful with the lifesaving club a magnificent sandstone structure that somehow adds to the natural beauty rather than taking away from it!

We drove back along the esplanade where old industrial buildings are being bulldozed to make way for new housing estates. Nestled between gigantic ship building yards and oil refinery sized tanks are shiny McMansions presumably filled with FIFO families or at least mining money. Maybe it is more like the Gold Coast than I first thought!

 We had a relaxing afternoon hanging around the park with the boys getting a close up look at the speedway formula 500 car that was camped next to us and were pretty excited to be able to sit in it!

They then had a great time using their remote control car to send messages to Shelby scrawled on a piece of paper. Shelby even managed to use it to order a beer! After another yummy dinner we had a Uno challenge with the boys having a ‘late night’ as the girls were going home tomorrow. It wasn’t long after the boys were down before the adults eyelids were heavy and the sheets were pulled up.