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We checked into the functional, but characterless Fremantle Village Caravan Park early afternoon on Thursday 27th June, and headed into the heart of Fremantle to collect our new credit cards and see the town. There were some great bakeries, cafes and stores to tempt us, so we filled our tummies with homemade sausage rolls, delicious coffees, and added to our winter wardrobes from the Kathmandu sale.Afterwards we checked out the free exhibits at the Maritime Museum's collection of shipwrecks which housed three Dutch ships who'd met their demise off the WA Coast in the 16-1800's. Most interesting was the Dutch East India Co ship Batavia, who's crew had started to mutiny, but had been hit by a storm and wrecked on the Abrolhos Islands off Geraldton. The captain and crew headed back to Jakarta (Batavia) for a rescue ship for 290 passengers. Meanwhile the passengers were marooned over 2 islands and made do on little water and wallabies until the mutineers decided to make themselves "Governor" and proceeded to kill all the women, children and old men, to ensure enough food was left for them. The captain and rescuers arrived back from Jakarta in the nick of time to save the day, cut the mutineer's hands off (his skeleton is on display in the museum), and sent the rest back to the Netherlands to be tried and hung. Would make a great movie! The girls spent a long time perusing the skeleton and asked heaps of questions about pirates and bad people. It's quite a task getting your story straight whilst cutting out the really gory bits.We took a quick trip to Clive's house to catch up with his wife Linda and 2 boys for drinks and nibbles before returning to the camper.The following day, we took the Landcruiser in to get a full service - pays to be sure the car will get us across the Nullabor in one piece - and took the train into the city, and then the free CAT bus out to Kings Park on the shores of the Swan River to enjoy the winter sunshine (should mention it poured with rain the night before!). Kings Park is enourmous, and I think we walked the length of it in search of Synergy Park with dinosaur sculptures around a lake, and then walked back up a clearway to the DNA tower overlooking Perth. Thankfully we found a bus to relieve our weary feet, and headed back to Claremont to pick up the car - with lots of new oil and corrected stearing. After a quick change, we drove north to City Beach to Clancy's Fish Bar to watch the last of the sunset and catch up with my cousin Lisa and her partner Herve. Had the best seafood chowder in ages and they had a really cool band for the kids to dance to.On the Saturday we had a touristy ride on the ferris wheel at Fremantle waterfront and met my cousin Lisa again along with her dad, my uncle Ian, for a scrummy lunch of pizzas at Little Creatures Brewery. I remember coming here many years ago when this was the only venue, but they've grown so much their beer is right across Australia and have a couple of other breweries cropping up in other locations (think Geelong in Victoria is a new one). Good food and a great afternoon. A hasty farewell, and we drove north for around 100km to thGravity Discovery Centre in Gingin, where the kids had a ball playing with all the hands-on exhibits. Since there was only and hour or so until they closed, they said we could come back the next morning. Nearby was Clive and Linda's holiday house at Guilderton, and we met them along with their boys and friend Dean (from Shark Bay) for a huge feast of prawns, dhufish (best fish I've ever eaten!), slow roasted pork belly, roast chicken, vegies and the list goes on. Sticky date pudding and donuts for dessert, plus several wines, and we were all tucked in bed at a respectable hour.Back to the Gravity Discovery Centre the next morning to climb the Gravity Tower armed with water balloons to demonstrate the impact of craters (cool, but very high tower!) and walk the length of the solar system (not to scale) and see more of the internal displays. We got talking to one of the tour guides and he said it would be a surprise if the place was still open next year as the state government had withdrawn funding for their science projects. A big shame if it does - it was a great family place to go.Arriving back in Perth, we did some chores and went back to Fremantle Village to meet Clive and Linda at a lovely Italian restaurant Capri - very homestyle and delicious. Back to the camper and a cold, frosty night. Heading south east tomorrow. to follow
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