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Quite a journey from Sydney to Perth! Sandy was very ill in Sydney from her snake bite and was not really fit to travel. Some how she managed to get to the airport and through the 5 hour flight. Once we reached the hotel she gave in and retired to her bed! The Rydges Hotel and its staff were excellent and nothing was too much trouble for them. If you have to be ill and spend 5 days in bed there are few better equiped than this hotel. After a couple of visits by the doctor and various doses of medication she slowly began to recover. On the sixth day she began to reacquaint herself with the outside world and the wonders of Perth.
We took the ferry ride down the Swan river to Freemantle. A great little journey and an ideal way to recuperate. Once again eccentrics dogged our path( no we were not looking in the mirror), The scenery was magnificent. Two of our fellow passengers( both women) were clearly obsessed with their new camera and themselves because they missed all the scenery whilst they took pictures of themselves in various poses- sitting on seat facing right, sitting on seat facing left, standing in front of seat, standing behind seat, sitting on another seat.... and then swapping over to repeat the process with the other person! By the time they had finished we were in Freemantle- come to think of it we spent so much time watching them that we missed a lot of the scenery as well!
Freemantle is a very attractive old town, which we explored by the trolley bus. The guide was richly entertaining and richly informative- far too much information for us to remember! The oldest hotel in the town had just completed a major refit and was ready for its grand opening when a local boy came along with too many matches and turned the restorers' plans to ashes. The town is at the entrance to the Indian Ocean and gave great views out to sea. We really loved this sunny attractive town with its upmarket hotels. We had lunch on Cappucino Street- where else would you buy a coffee! This would normally have been Sandy's paradise,but on this occasion she had to settle for a peppermint tea.
We watched a drama group in the market square- clearly a collaboration between local schools and the theatre group. A group of children sat very patiently in their cute little hats for the performance to begin. And wait they did- the drama group chatted amongst themselves and made half hearted attempts to set up the scenery, Some of the children were due to be performing- not surprisingly they got bored and started to cause mayhem both on and off the stage. It was bedlam, but very amusing for us, as it was not our concern! Come back Jamie and Pamela!
Our visit to the Perth Mint proved to be both informative and full of unexpected hilarity. Perth Mint originally made all of the coins used in Western Australia, as it proved to be too expensive to ship them out from England.Today most of the coins are made elsewhere and only special editions come from here. For instance,all of the medals for the Sydney Olympics originated here. Tourists still get the chance to produce their own souvenir coins.As soon as Bertie heard about this he could not wait to get started! We naturally wanted to record his efforts for prosperity, but sadly photography is banned for security reasons. However,Bertie is very persistent and asked if we could get special permission to take photos. The guard telephoned the head of security, who paused momentarily when he heard about the bear's request and then did what any sane person would do- he burst into hysterical laughter- we took this as a sign that he was happy and prepared to take the photo. At this moment another guard came along to forbid the photo, but was stopped in his tracks by the cry of "the bear has got security clearance." Afterwards we all had afternoon tea.Apparently in its early days the wife of one of the governors at the mint liked to partake of afternoon tea every Thursday with her friends but objected to the sight of the dirty workers who were hard at it producing the nation's wealth. The Governor had a dilemma - upset his wife or stop the production of coins. Being a pragmatic man,he decided that every Thursday afternoon his men should receive paid leave and sent them down to the local pub, thus making his life at home more harmonious.As the ladies walked in through one door, the men left through another.
On our return to Perth from Broome we set off on a tour to the Margaret River region to the south of the city. We had booked the trip the day before, after Sandy had interviewed the prospective tour companies over the phone- one of them got 9 out of ten which was good enough to receive our booking. Two guys called David and Darryl ran the company and clearly remembered Sandy's interrogation, commenting wryly on it as we boarded the bus early the next morning. We left town as the sun rose heading on our long road south- a quick stop at the Jolly Frog for breakfast and then back on the road in search of kangaroos. We saw many roos and wallabies with the help of our sharp eyed Aussie fellow tourists- we even got to take photos, sometimes from a little too close! We stopped at 3 vineyards and sampled their wonderful wine- at one we had a fantastic meal as well. The Voyager Vineyard was set up by a man called Michael Wright, a millionaire who has spent substantially and wisely to create a wonderful place( the family live off the royalties provided by the mines set up by his father). One of the other vineyards is used regularly as an outdoor concert venue where major international artists perform . The gardens are inhabited by Kookaburrras who produce raucous laughter when the mood takes them, Apparently a famous orchestra was performing when the birds decided to accompany them- the conductor was really offended because he thought that the guests were booing. He took a lot of convincing that the birds were responsible and not ill mannered Aussies! We drove through National Parks, as well as stopping at various coastal locations to admire the view. We drove back in the twilight, reaching the outskirts of Perth as the sun went down. The tour guides were wonderfully helpful- Sandy and I debated the exact nature of their relationship- business partners or just good friends? Whatever! It was a great day out and once again we were lucky enough to meet and share our adventures with some delightful Australians.
On our final day in Perth we took the trolley tour and stopped off at King's Park- a huge outdoor space overlooking the rivers and the city. We were struck by the number of weddings that were going on in the sunshine-we lost count at 5- and by the large number of extended family gatherings picnicing and enjoying the hot weather and the wide open spaces.Large areas of the park have been left in their natural state. We went exploring, having been told that the woods were full of snakes of which 5 species were poisionous. Sandy heard and saw them everywhere- I was sent into the deep and impenetrable woods to look for them. You know the old saying" once bitten, twice shy"- well that clearly did not apply to Sandy.
Next day it was time to leave Australia for Africa. We have really fallen in love with the country and its generous ,happy inhabitants. We would love to return here some day ( is that an echo I hear?), maybe even to settle down, if they will have us and have hidden all the snakes!
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