The first touristy thing we did was watch the sunset over the ocean. It was nice. And had pizzas for dinner at a marina. See photos below. I can't spread photos through text on my iPad. I'll fix it when I'm back on a computer.
Perth is like Canberra by the sea and some big rivers. Well mown grass, smooth driving, modern buildings. Fremantle is old though. We did a tunnel tour of the prison which is expensive but more interesting than seeing cells, if you have already seen other gaols, because you go underground in safety gear and wade in flooded tunnels and row boats under ground.
The markets are indoor markets like haymarket but smaller and perhaps nicer. There are heaps of restaurants. Then we went to kings park which is very handsome and has amazingly fine smooth grass and very good views of the rivers and the cbd. Then we went to church. And we were super tired, it was extremely hard to keep awake after a long day plus the 2 hour time difference.
On Monday we drove with Heather down to busselton where Julia lives. We took her horse for a walk, taking turns to ride, and did some farmy horsy things. And then we went to the jetty and walked along it as it got dark... Too cloudy for a sunset. But cold sea breezes, and it's the longest jetty you'll see.
Tuesday, we all went driving around the Margaret river area. It's a lot like the hunter valley, but with more sheep and dairy cows and a lot more rain, and more convenient to drive around, you can drive past an interesting cottage industry or winery every half a km. we bought something at every place we stopped! We went to one winery for tasting, woody nook, which was very friendly. We went to a maze and solved it. We went to a small chocolate factory and tasted cocoa bean and different darkness of chocolate and had home made ice creams. We went to an olive oil factory that makes soaps and oil things. We went to "cow town". We had lunch at a bakery at Margaret River, and I bought a coat at a vintage clothes shop next door. We went to one of the caves, the lake cave. And then we went home and bought Chinese takeaway for dinner. So I highly recommend the Margaret river for an excellent density of interesting things to do all in just one day.
Heather went back to Perth for work the next day, so we got up early with her, and went back to the jetty and watched the sunrise. The very exciting thing that happened was that I discovered that my camera has a setting for tilt shift effect! I started taking miniaturised photos like mad.
Spent the day just wandering around busselton. D caught a bus in the evening, up to meet a new friend she had met at church and arranged to visit the pinnacles district with on Thursday and Friday. I stayed with Julia for another day and met some of her best friends, the Johnson family. We all did a few more things in Margaret river: the bigger chocolate factory, a silk worm farm and silk shop, an ice cream factory, and a cheese factory. All of these factories are basically shops that make things and tell tourists how they are made. Then we did sing star at the Johnson's house, had dinner, and I drew portraits of the girls.
On Friday morning I caught an early bus up to Perth. It took 3 and a bit hours. I got to the bus station at 11am, and couldn't make head or tale of the transport system and also i had runout of cash because i didnt know my PIN, so decided that at least I knew how to read a map and walk, so I walked to the hotel which took about 30 minutes. Dumped my suitcase with the concierge and walked to the river to eat snacks from my backpack. Woohoo! Realised the Perth mint was very close, so I went there and did tour and saw a lot of gold. Shiny liquid gold and lots of bars.
Then I realised that there are free buses called cats that circle the cbd. Possibly all the buses are free in the cbd also. So I went full circle on the red cat bus, which took an hour and was pleasant. Then I got off in the mall and posted Heather's birthday card, found a cafe to have late lunch and wrote this blog post up until this point. I had heard a lot about WAs expensive eating, but we only did one gourmet meal that was $30 each. We ate a lot of meals $8-15. It's bright and sunny and not cold at all, and is similar but different to Sydney. I'm sitting opposite the old cba and gpo, and they are exactly the same model as the buildings in Martin place, but in bright yellow sandstone instead of greyish sandstone or granite style. Fewer Asians, more Africans. Quite prosperous, but in a suburban way rather than a city way. A lot of personalised number plates, like maybe a third of them.
