March 16th - Fremantle

We arrived in Fremantle around 8am to a beautiful sunny hot day.  The forecast was for sun, 26 degs and force 3 winds (whatever that means!).  I would say that the temperatures got to around the early 30’s with a pleasant breeze and plenty of hot sun.  Our friend John picked us up around 9.30am and showed us the sights around Fremantle which is quite flat and a blend of very old and new.  There seem to be a lot of great outdoor eating restaurants and cafes which I like.  We travelled south meandering our way down the beautiful coastline.  Lots of blue blue water and white sandy beaches.  The beaches we saw were more like Nelson Bay beaches rather than our Newcastle surf beaches.  They do have surf beaches up near Perth.  We then stopped off at John’s house for a quick cuppa and some homemade scones and to pick up Coral to head north to Perth and beyond to the Swan Valley.   Firstly we stopped off at Kings Park which had a magnificent avenue of huge white gum trees.  The view of the city was spectacular as was the colour of the brilliant green grass given that they have just had multiple days in the high 30’s.  We stopped off Cavesham House (? Spelling) for lunch which was a real work of art and very delicious plus a bottle of award winning (gold) wine as they had just held some wine judging recently.  We then headed back to the ship via millionaire’s row in Perth where we saw some magnificent houses along the river.  All in all it was a quick snapshot of Fremantle and Perth but we greatly appreciated John and Coral taking the time to show us around and enjoyed our time spent with them.  Thankyou John and Coral.

We decided to eat in the Belvedere buffet as they were having a Thai themed which turned out to be a BIG mistake… it was Indian styled thai food.  That will be our one and only dinner there and it will be back to our usual table in the restaurant tonight.  I wonder if the elusive couple showed up last night to complete our table of 8?  The nightly show was cancelled as the sound person took ill much to Peter’s disappointment… you would think they would have more than one sound tech on board!    Bye for now xo