Perth

Well here we are again, on the road in Perth. We stayed 2 weeks @ the CP in Caversham. The first person we meet is from Mildura/Perth. Marilyn comments that she was born in Mildura, Geoff asks family name I say Mottram he says Burl's daughter, you got it. He lived next door to mum in Mildura & mum went out with his brother. We had only been at the park 2 hours & my friend Shirley & her husband Brian arrived to say hi.

Perth from Kings Park

On Sunday Shirley & Brian pick us up  & we  went to Oakover  winery in the  Swan Valley for lunch & over the Wendy's for coffee, when we got back to the van our next door neighbour was Wayne & Jenny, we keep running into them which is nice. Monday we did the shopping & finding our way round the area. On Tuesday we were collect again for a great day out, Kings Park was our first stop followed by the Perth Mint, had a great tour here, then we headed out of town to Mundaring Weir.

Royal Perth Mint

As you can see from the photo the dam is very low. You can see the buttress supports of the wall it is that low. this dam supplies  water to Perth, Kalgoorlie & the Goldfields.

Mundaring Weir, supplies Perth, Kalgoorlie & the Gold Fields

Friday we decided to take the train to Freemantle, what a great time we had, the train was cheap for us old folks. Freemantle has a free bus as well, that you can just jump on and off as you please. We went to the Freemantle Markets & the Maritime Museum. You may notice that I am a bit taken with the lighthouses over here.

Arthur Head Lighthouse Fremantle

The hull of Australia 11

The deck of Australia 11
The museum has lots of boats but the best one was the Australia 11, with lots of info on the yacht  & the preparations for the race.

The HMAS Ovens resting at the Maritime Museum, Fremantle

Also the tour of the HMAS Ovens, this took about 1 hour and was great we went inside this submarine. Ian's son Adam was on the sister sub, HMAS Otway, the top of which is at Holbrock NSW. We spent 2 or 3 hours at the museum and really enjoyed it.

Having a great day sailing @ Fremantle 

These beautiful Gums were all over Guildford

On Sunday we went driving around Guilford, this town was settled at the same time as Perth, with many old & historic homes & building. One really interesting one was Woodbridge House, first owned by Governor Stirling. It is furnished with many pieces that had been in the house when it was built.

Oldest Pub in Perth @ Guildford 

Woodbridge House, Guildford

On another lovely day we set of again for Fremantle to see some of the bits we missed the first time. The E Shed markets were closed, but the Round House Prison was open, this again was an interesting place to visit. But the best for the day was the Shipwreck Meseum.

Round House, 1830's Swan River Colony's 1st prison

Shipwreck Galleries building

We just luck on this museum and found that we will have to return again when we go back to Perth. Just think you can stand next to the ship timbers of the Dutch ship Batavia that was wrecked in 1629 off the coast of WA. There are artifacts from not only the Batavia but 3 other ships as well. We ran out off time here.

The wreck of the Batavia 1629, wreck of the coast of Geraldton

The brick balast from the Batavia & some of the ships timbers

Shirley & Brian at home in our van

The Wednesday before we left we had dinner again with Shirley & Brian at Jimmy Deans Diner which was good, nice food, great company. On Thursday we had lunch with Michael & Lorraine (friends of Ian's from TR days) at Mundaring Weir Pub, then back to their place in Leeming for coffee/tea.

Mundaring  Weir Pub

These Ringneck (Port Lincoln) parrots are just everywhere in WA

Geoff & Terri Cooke from Mildura

As we enjoyed our stay in Perth we will have to return later in the month. The weather was a bit off lots of rain with cold winds but some nice sunny days to enjoy. On Saturday 25th June we headed north so more of our travels next time I have signal. Cheers  Marilyn and Ian