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Day 63 - Perth to Busselton
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After another late start we called Katie's Uncle Peter, who lives in the area, and arranged to meet him & his wife Jan for lunch in Fremantle, a lovely town just south of Perth, famous for its charming old buildings and a very agreeable breeze which blows through from the coast every afternoon, called "the Fremantle Doctor".
We left the house with strict instructions to be back at the house for 4pm LATEST, as we needed to drive down to the Margaret River area in time for dinner, so Si took a few hours of work...
We had to take the local train into Perth, and then another train to Fremantle, so we arrived in "Freeo" at about 12:30pm, it was about 1hr 15mins away.
We were due to meet Peter & Jan at about 1:15pm, so this gave me some time to quickly whizz around the town and show Katie the sights.
I'd visited Perth on my Oz/NZ holiday just after Katie & I met, when I was lucky to be able to stay with Dad's friend Pete, who took me out and showed me the local area, including a very nice fish & chips lunch by the harbour in Freeo.
So this is where I took Katie, and it was lovely in the shining sun, quite busy (it was Sunday) and it had a real buzz to it.
Katie was extremely frustrated that we couldn't stop for some fish & chips, but I managed to drag her away by assuring her that yes I was sure that our lunch venue would have it too !!
On the way back we went into a fantastic micro-brew pub near the water called "Little Creatures", it was incredibly nice considering it used to be a crocodile farm !
We wandered through some of the quiter streets and into the centre...
...and met Peter & Jan as planned in the Sail & Anchor pub, which was a brew-pub, which seems to be all the rage on the west coast at the moment. It's the building on the left below...
I'm certainly not complaining, being a real lover of dark beers & ales, it is absolutely amazing for me and long may it continue ;)
We went up to the first floor balcony area, which was perfect for watching the buskers/street entertainers, who we all know are global players these days ! Their acts are finely tuned and always fun, we had a pirate with a little boat complete with mast, who performed various gymnastic feats and managed to be quite amusing...
Jan knew a good place to eat called The Norfolk (being a Suffolk lad it was lucky that I was oblivious of the name until we had finished !!) which was very good, and absolutely chocked full of young people, so fair play to them for knowing where to take us.
Katie was able to have her fish & chips, while Jan & I had a couple of really tasty salads. And before any of you start worrying, it had roast chicken in it and I had chips with mine ;)
I'm sure Katie's Mum & Dad would like to see some photos of Peter & Jan, so here you go !
The dark beer there was excellent again, and Katie was enjoying her red wine again, so we realised that although much more expensive than Asia, we are definitely going to enjoy the drinks more over here !!!!
We were chatting away while watching the time, but you know how hard it is to leave when you're having a good time, especially when they're 'distant' relatives who we probably won't see again for a long time...
Peter & Jan kindly picked up the bill, allowing us to sprint to the train station and just miss one of the Perth trains, which run every 15 minutes.
We arrived back home late (after a worse journey home thanks to the drunken kids in our carriage), so we packed in record time and were in the car 10 minutes later. Simon wasn't too impressed with our late arrival - I wouldn't have been either if I left work early especially !! - but didn't say anything, top man that he is ;)
We were then off for Busselton, which is co-incidentally the town where Si will be moving to in a few week's time, as he completes his "country posting" for the Western Australian (W.A.) Police, a mandatory 2 yr stint outside the city.
The landscape on the way down was lovely, as we headed due south from Perth and into the Margaret River area of W.A. We had a quick journey down, taking an hour less than we'd planned, so we made up the time that we'd lost with our late arrival.
We found Si's cousin's holiday home where we were staying, and headed off to the famous Busselton pier, which is apparently the longest pier in the southern hemisphere, which I admit is not the most impressive of boasts, but it certainly is a rather errr.... long.... um.... pier.
In fairness it does curve round at the top of this photo, it's nearly a mile long; it used to be used for the boats which moored here with provisions before the road network was good enough.
We timed it perfectly, as the sun was just about to set. I guess if you're going to be anywhere for a sunset, you may as well be on the west coast of a country, and it was a pretty spectacular event. Naturally it was nothing special to the locals because it happens every day (!!!) but to us it was just beautiful...
After savouring the sunset we drove to the main street and chose a nice pub/bar for dinner. Katie managed to resist another meal of fish & chips, while I went for the steak. It's so nice to get stuck into some proper meat after all the rice & noodles in Asia, but we'll need to cut back soon as we can't afford to have big meals every day over here sadly.
We then went back to the house, where we tackled the Nintendo Wii which was hooked up to the telly ! We worked our way through tennis, baseball, tenpin bowling and golf before deciding it was time for bed.
We were all really looking forward to tomorrow, and the reason for our sojourn south: a guided tour of wineries, breweries, chocolate and cheese factories !!!!!!!
YOU BEAUTY ;)
Lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
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