Day 56-63. 29th June - 6th July. Fremantle. The boys are back in town.

What a shock to the senses driving into Perth and Fremantle with 4 lane highways and cars zig zagging about us. We have done so much driving on one lane freeways with the only separation between us and an oncoming roadtrain is a dashed white line, but it is a different thing being in the thick of it. Exciting and daunting at the same time – happy to be where the action is.

Dropped the van at the accommodation and thankfully it is up to scratch. On our last trip, we had an apartment in Darwin that had a few issues including an outdoor kitchen and the second bedroom just being the loungeroom separated by a cupboard. It was a relief to have the accommodation pretty much as described. There were challenges that we found as the week progressed, but to have our own room with a bed, the boys with us, heating, a couch, a kitchen, and indoor plumbing it felt like luxury walking in.

Our location was in Central Freo and was absolutely tops. While the first night we bunkered down together with our first family meal in months, the Sunday allowed us to go and explore on foot. Checking out the market, the waterfront, a cafe and the town. Later that afternoon we met Sarah, a friend from a previous trip, at the Sail and Anchor and had a good chat, beer and a feed. Being so central it allowed the boys to go and do their own thing by meeting a friend and seeing a band afterwards, all within 500m of where we were staying. Record stores and op shops were frequented frequently during the week.

We ventured to Perth city on the Wednesday, starting at Kings Park with the views over Perth. Perth record stores were hit as was the Museum for Linda and Alex, and that night, we went to the botanical gardens as Alex had bought tickets for Linda’s mother’s day to see “Lightscape”, a massive light installation that was stunning to walk through with Perth Night lights as a back drop. Enjoyable evening until it took us 15 minutes to find the car in the dark. It may have been left in the car park slightly long and I started worrying about it being towed.

Joel and I did the tour of Optus stadium and revisited the site of the capitulation of the dogs back in ’21. Even went to the changeroom the dogs were in on that day. It didn’t feel like it had ghosts of lost opportunity, just the soulless feeling of nothing, which is appropriate. The ground looked great, it had been designed very well and it would be good to see a game there – just couldn’t bring myself to go to a Freo vs Richmond one.

No visit to Perth is complete without a visit to Rottnest Island. An all-day event with hiring dodgy bikes and doing the 10k loop, and getting the Quokka photo capture quota up. The hills provided challenges, but the beaches and views were excellent and provided a great shared experience. Only saw a couple of Quokkas at the start, and it wasn’t until we cycled for a few hours back to the resort where the Quokka numbers were like an infestation around the food outlets of the island.

Linda, Alex and I did a port walking tour learning about how they were designed, built and used over the years. We also learned about the architect of all things good there – C.Y. O’Conner. While he did some amazing work, he ended his own life by riding into the sea on his horse and shooting himself. A bit of a twist in the tale.

Another education for me, was the forgotten children. A large number of English and Maltese children that were effectively kidnapped and sent to Australia as ended up as part of the forgotten children. Kids sent overseas into orphanages, were told their parents were dead, they were often abused and used as child labour under the guise of “learning new skills” it is another chapter of Australia’s history that is just so hard to believe that didn’t stop until the early 70’s. Another education for me on this holiday.We did a walking tour of Fremantle ports which was interesting to find more of the history of Freo, including the architect of all things good there – C.Y. O’Conner.

Joel and I did the Fremantle Prison tunnels tour – which is actually going under the prison and using boats to traverse the water aqueducts. This is sometimes in complete darkness after climbing down 3 flights of vertical stairs wearing a harness that required you to make sure things were in the right place before being tightened. It wasn’t so much about the convict history as the visionary work that had to be done to get Fremantle working as a town, which ended up helping WA become the state that it is. That C.Y O’Conner dude also had his hand in this.

The final afternoon, the Fremantle Doctor had received the news from Poseidon that he wasn’t happy with us and decided to try and give us a licking. While we were protected from the rain, the wind was truly something to behold and while we were indoors 9 floors up, the front door felt like it was about to explode at any time. This gave us some quiet time for Joel and I watch the dogs get slaughtered, and then for us to play card games, Mario Kart and Blokus together. This was a special week for the 4 of us to spend time together like we used to and haven’t done since they moved out from home. A definite highlight of trip.

Facilities review:

Guest reviewer – Alex.

TL:DR no shower curtain, 9.5/10.

Small: adjective 1. of a size that is less than normal or usual.

This shower is small. It's like whoever did the bathroom renos built a nice little linen cupboard before realising they lacked a shower, bolted a tap to the wall and called it a day - with the waterproofing to match. Certainly not enough room to swing a cat, though I wasn't planning on doing that anyway, so that’s fine by me. Three walls and a door that lets Freo's entire water supply sit neatly in a puddle outside - what more could you ask for? No shower curtain, and the path from bed to shower is entirely indoors, a luxury my parents don’t get too often. This will do just nicely.

Normal reviewer. Look, an indoor bathroom is fantastic, so this bathroom between the hours of 8pm and 8am rated a 10/10. However, after getting over the excitement of not having to go in the rain to relieve yourself, there were some flaws. It would be called small. Our ensuites have been bigger in the caravan parks. Sitting on the convenience meant your knees were knocking on the wall, and fitting your hands in the hand basin was not quite possible for anyone over 10 years old, which we all were. The shower, while hot, leaked. To start with, it created a pool and I had to resort to Drano and an excavation of clogged hair of tenants past. While this stopped the pooling, it didn’t stop the leaking through the door, so this already small shower required you to use only one corner of it so as there wasn’t too much spraying onto the outside floor. I don’t want to sound ungrateful but we have had caravan park shared bathrooms more functional than this one, and I didn’t have to remove evidence of past showerers. 7/10.