Step 57 Yallingup – Fremantle (or Freo as we call it locally)

Friday 18^th March Yallingup – Fremantle (or Freo as we call it locally)

Started the day with both of us heading down to the beach for a swim. No dolphins to share the swim with today though.

Bit of housekeeping around MM and it's another TED.

Lesson 1 for today: Two aging people can tour in a Toyota Corolla Hatch and a (very small) two man tent.

Lesson 2 for today: Those two aging people are not Steve & Di

Set off on time and despite stopping at Dunsboro to return the DVD and visit the local bakery (very good and very cheap) and butcher (also very good and very cheap) we easily arrived at Busselton Jetty in time for the 11:0am tour.

Lesson 3 for today: Old people are wrinkly, troublesome teenagers. The 11:00am tour left at 11:20 thanks to a group tour wandering off and then being late getting back to the tram. The tour guide then had to continually repeat herself as the tour group couldn't stop talking long enough to listen. Respect people R E S P E C T (thank you Aretha)

OK, got that out of my system, now to the good news, the UWO (underwater observatory) was fantastic. Basically what they have done is put a vertical pipe with perspex windows at the end of the pier so that you can observe the marine life that absolutely abounds out there. Without getting wet. Although if you look up long enough, through the water to the waves above, you can actually make yourself sea sick. Or maybe that was just me.

Editors note: The Leeuwin current, that flows past the end of the jetty, drags warm water and warm water fish down from Indonesia. It also supports the growth of coral on the jetty pylons.

Leaving Busselton with a warm and fuzzy feeling we set off for Freo.

A quick stop at the Post Office at South Fremantle to pick up a few months of mail that we had had redirected by good old Past the Post and then it was check-in time at Fremantle Village Caravan Park.

A few surprises at check-in. Firstly we were re-united with an old friend. Well not so much friend as very close acquaintance. Yep the English lady from Margaret River, lets call her Babs, the one who parked their van right on top of MM. Nearly didn't recognise her with her clothes on.

A nicer surprise was that there is a motor home “compound”. That is, there is a section on the park that is just for for motor-homes and campervans. Each site has a garden hedge and table and chairs (and thankfully our English friends are nowhere near our site!). Average age looks a lot younger here again and a lot of foreign “back packers”. There are even two Land Rover Defenders all kitted out as campers that have come all the way from Switzerland. George and Gordon would have been very impressed.

Saturday 19^th March

Sitting around the van having a quiet day when I suddenly heard “Hey Steve, how are you”. That's funny I thought that's my name. When I looked up it was our new friends Jo & Phil riding past on their push bikes. After dropping their bikes off back at their Troopy they came back for wine o'clock at 5:00 and we sat around chatting. Then it all of a sudden it was 10:30pm. Fairly sure this is going to hurt in the morning.

Sunday 20^th March

Waking remarkably chipper in the morning we had a leisurely breakfast, at our personal picnic seating before having a coffee with Jo & Phil before they left to head up to Perth.

In a remarkable burst of energy and foresight we decided to head into Freo to check out where we need to go tomorrow to catch the ferry. A quick walk down the bike park and then we were able to jump on the free CAT bus.

Freo is a buzzin, markets, shops are open and loads of cafes and restaurants. So in another episode of “Where would we live if we moved to …..” The winner for Perth is …...

Fremantle.

Monday 21^st March

Despite only doing twelve and a half thousand km's from home and the Merc recommended service interval being twenty thousand km's we had decided to get MM serviced while we were in Perth for peace of mind. So today it's up early and off to the dealership. Not sure what I was expecting with traffic but what we got was full on peak hour. At least MM made it up the hill out of Freo, unlike the motorhome we passed that was stuck in the middle of the road!

On the drive over Di wondered “will we get a Merc as a loan car?”

Good news Di – it's a Merc

Bad news it's a Vito delivery van

Leaving in the dealership in cloud of tyre smoke and squealing tyres (the new Vito is a little more sensitive to throttle input than MM) we headed of to the city and the Perth Mint.

One interesting part of the tour is that when they renovated the smelter room they managed to recover thirty thousand dollars worth of gold from the ceiling (just from the evaporating gold, not from Perth's equivalent of Chopper Reid hiding gold bars in the roof). Having recovered that much they then did a more thorough cleanup of the walls and floors.

Informational note: As part of the tour the guys melt down and reform a gold ingot. They have been melting down the same ingot for 20 years. 7 times a day for 363 days a year. Mind you it gets a top every year so I think there might be a touch of the “my grandfathers axe” to this story.

The Welcome Stranger is on the left. The even stranger Steve is holding it

How camp Steve

Tuesday 21^st March

The big day today. Right from the beginning of the trip Di has been looking forward to riding a pushbike around Rottnest Island. Following our practise run from yesterday we walked down to the CAT bus and headed into the dock area. In a brilliant piece of planning we arrived in time to have a cappuccino before we got on the Ferry.

It appears we have fallen for the advertising story again. “Book your bike with your ferry ticket and save time”. Wrong. Turns out the bikes are all on the ferry, offloaded by two guys while one guy hands them out to people.

All good though, eventually we are on the way. Luckily being towards the end of the queue we have ended up with the “touring bike”. These are much more sit up straight style and I think more comfortable for us. Spent a bit of time on the first kilometre working out the gears on the bike but got the hang of it in time for the first big hill.

We quickly noticed quite a few things:

1: We are not ready for the Tour de France

2: There is very little  shade on Rottnest Island outside of the main settlement

3: It can get very hot riding around on a bike

4: The Dutch guy who named this Rottnest (rat's nest) needed glasses, quokkas are much cuter than rats.

5: Lizards can look a lot like snakes form a distance
      5b: Di can move quite quickly when motivated

6: Swimming is very refreshing when you are hot and bothered

6: French girls in bikinis on bicycles can be quite attractive

Proof readers note: behave yourself Steve

7: Bikes with engines make better touring vehicles than bikes with pedals

Should have padlocked the bike - nearly got nicked by a dodgy looking quokka

So while Rottnest itself is not that attractive (bit scrubby and bare), there are some beautiful beaches and lovely beaches.

We did manage to get round the island on the bikes (well done you two) although we did skip the western point that juts out a few km's.

In fact we arrived back at the settlement and ferry jetty in time to catch an earlier ferry. It was at this point we re-discovered the perils of really cheap discount fares (on anything). Popped into the ferry office to enquire about getting on an earlier ferry. “Certainly sir, we have vacancies on the 4:00pm ferry and we can re-book you on that if you would like”

“that would be lovely”

“there will be a re-booking fee on that”

“oh, how much would that be then”

“$34”

“mmm, I'll have to think about that”

“each”

“ok, I've thought about it – no”

Back to the drawing board then, how to kill two hours or so.

Another lap of the island on the bikes - NO

Pop into the general store and get some cheese and biscuits and an adult beverage or two – LOVELY

So there we go, despite having paid a world record price for two Paddle Pop ice creams earlier the cheese and bickies and vodka cruisers were remarkably reasonably priced. It was then a quick walk down to the waterfront to settle in on a park bench to take in the view and partake of wine o'clock.

Editors note: We did take the drinks out of the paper bag while sitting on the park bench. We do have some decorum.

Arriving back in Fremantle we discovered a slight flaw in our plan of catching the last ferry back from Rotto – the buses stop running before the ferry arrives back. Next flaw in the plan is that there are no taxis at the ferry terminal but eventually we managed to hail a taxi down and got back to MM.

Editors note: Cheese, biscuits, 2 vodka cruisers and a taxi is still cheaper than changing your ferry ticket

Steve getting off the boat in Freo - with the same bewildered look on his face as in 1963

Today - the Rottnest Ferry
September 1963 - The Stratheden