We had a day trip on the train to Fremantle on Wednesday, a 40 minute ride down the coast to the next major town along. We visited the Maritime Museum, as Freo is one of the main harbour towns on WA. It was really impressive, and full of interactive things to do which amused children like us. The main attraction was a 1960s refurbished submarine, which we went on a guided tour around. Our tour guide was an older guy, with a twang of English, but who was completely un-English with his sense of humour it had to be seen to be believed. Claire was clinging on to Liam for dear life in the hope he wouldn't pick on her, but he didn't luckily. He had no qualms about questioning the sexuality of one of the women - nice. Back to the submarine though, that was fascinating! Our guide explained all the ins an outs of life on a sub, sometimes for as long as 8 months at a time, and thoroughly deterred us from joining the marines anyway.

For $8 the day out was cheap as chips, which inspired us to have aformentioned chips, and fish, for dinner. We followed directions on a leaflet to the 'best fish restaurant in the world' called Kailis cafe, which was worth the trip just to see Liam try to maneouvre his way around 'chilli crab'. We'd been watching Masterchef Australia and were inspired a few nights ago to try it, but neither of us we expecting the sheer mess he would make (see photos). Worth it though, as it was delicious!

Next, when the lights had gone low and the moon was out, we headed up to Fremantle Prison in the town centre for our torchlight tour around. Warned beforehand it would contain 'some surprises' Claire didn't leave Liam's side, especially when our guide (who looked scarily like an older, greyer Hugh Grant, and English) began to freak everyone in the group out with stories of ghosts. "Every tour I have led, someone in the group has photographed an orb." Dust, more like. Either way, the prison was fascinating. We explored the cells - particularly the 'escape-proof' one of Moondyne Joe - 3 levels of bars on the windows and the walls coated with timber with thousands of nails hammered in. The 'surprises' turned out to be a dummy thrown down from above to the sound of a scream, and a couple of actors in solitary confinement (one of them who looked particularly like the Daniel Sheard lookalike from Perth Mint). Obviously the evening was focused on scaring us silly, which worked to a certain extent, but the guide wasn't much of an aid - after the actor had walked off, he'd grin and say, 'So... er... scared yet yes?'

The only other thing to mention of today really is the fact that we got well and truly told off by some officials on the train, and threatened with a $50 fine, for the massive crime of buying a concession ticket, when we didn't actually study in WA, which apparently in the train system is a requirement. We played the ignorant-tourist card, which seemed to work, and got away scott-free, just to be met with more officials and more problems off the train when we had almost got through the barrier. Again, we tried to get away, and one of them almost made us pay for another ticket, but eventually the other guard with him took pity and let us off. Yay!

More to write later!