Perth and Fremantle WA

Wednesday 2^nd May to Tuesday 8^th May 2012:-

We spent six days enjoying Perth, sightseeing and catching up with friends. Last Friday, 4^th May, we enjoyed an evening and went out for dinner to Hillary's Restaurant at North Beach with George and Alla. George and Alla kindly collected us from the Advent Campground and after dinner we were invited back to George's home for coffee and then were taken back to Maida Vale. Sunday 6^th May we caught up with friends, Kent and Louise and Kent's mother, Marge, and went for lunch to a cafe at City Beach. We camped for two evenings at Kent and Louise's and spent time catching up on the years that have passed since we had seen them. We had a great time and our thanks to them for their warm and welcoming hospitality. Monday afternoon we caught up with a couple of Chris's past work colleagues, Ed and his wife Pat, Bob and his wife Marta. Marta had a lovely afternoon tea prepared and we enjoyed a friendly chat. It was a quick visit as we had to get back across Perth before the afternoon peak traffic and as the sky was black we wanted to beat the rain that was imminent.

PERTH is Western Australia's Capital. The city is sited on the broad estuary of the Swan River. Early city planners set aside large areas of land and preserved the land for public use, so today Perth has a lot of open spaces, the most prominent is Kings Park 400 ha of parkland with its War Memorial, overlooks the city and Swan River. We quickly acquainted ourselves with the public transport system of Perth and its surrounds. We camped for the first four evenings at the Advent Campground at Maida Vale approximately 18klms east of the city centre and travelled by bus into the city then ferry to Fremantle and then train back to the city and bus back to the campground.

18klms from Perth the Swan River flows into the Indian Ocean at the Historic City of Fremantle.

FREMANTLE established May 1829 is a busy fully containerised working harbour and international port catering for ocean liners and fishing fleets. Fremantle attracts many tourists and is a buzz with cafes, restaurants, art galleries and the Fremantle markets which are located in a magnificent historical warehouse on Victoria Quay right in the centre of the Fremantle Port which have been in operation since the late 1800's.