Perth with Pa'o

After dropping Em's parents back to Perth we spent a week or so chilling out in Margs, enjoying our last days there. We went to see Kelly Slater surf in the pro surf comp, hung out at the beach, went to Sunday Sessions at the pub, had a little birthday party for Jarvis and checked out several wineries we'd managed to miss during our stay. With the end of the grape season most of the travellers had moved on, our little camp was quickly emptying out, the weather was turning cold and everyone kept telling us the cold winter rains were on their way. So after one last party at Big Valley we bid Margaret River and our friends goodbye.

We arrived in Perth in time to meet Rob's dad, who had come to visit us. Rex rented a lovely little stone cottage in Fremantle for his visit. So we enjoyed the luxuries of running water, proper beds and a washing machine for a few days.

We managed to squeeze in a fabulous whirlwind tour of Perth. We went to the Aquarium (a birthday present for Jarvis from his Pa) and spent the day wandering around Hilary's Boat Harbour. The harbour itself it a bit tacky, but there are hundreds of boats moorings to check out and nice cafes and the aquarium was great fun.

We took ourselves on driving tours of the city and northern beaches, the foreshore areas along the lower swan river, checked out the workings of the port, enjoyed the view from King's Park and wandered aimlessly around Fremantle. We spent most of our time in Fremantle, it is by far the loveliest part of Perth (in fact locals don't even consider it part of perth but a separate city all together). Whilst almost everything about Perth seems to be shiny and new, Fremantle stills retains many, if not most of its original buildings and in many parts you could easily mistake yourself for being in the early 1800's. We ate fish and chips at the world famous Cicerello's (which by the way didn't rate very well with us), drank beers at the even more famous Little Creature Brewery (which totally lives up to its reputation), drank coffee at Gino's; the long standing locals coffee haunt and ate many lovely meals at very non-famous but delicious eateries scattered around Freo.

Rex, being a volunteer at Sydney's Maritime Museum, was very keen to check out Fremantle's counterpart and the shipwreck gallery. He enjoyed both immensely, we enjoyed the beers at the brewery while he explored our maritime history. We all took the tour through the Fremantle prison, which only closed it's doors as a working prison in 1991. It was well worth the visit, a little scary but really interesting. 

Photos: LEFT - The entrance yards of the prison were beautifully grassed and maintained, the prisoners were not allowed into this area. RIGHT - Once the closure of the prison was imminent, prisoners were given leave to paint murals on the cell walls, some were spectacular.

Much to Jarvis' dismay, we dropped Pa at the airport and said our goodbyes. We spent one more night in Perth at Ali's house in the hills, packing our stuff, doing a big shop and enjoying a proper bed one more time.

It was our fourth visit to Perth since we've been over in the west and there is still so much more to see. But we do feel very familiar with the city now and have thoroughly enjoyed exploring Perth.