Nomading - Perth - 13 - 20 September 2021

Moving further south I am not sure how happy we are about this we are getting closer to home and I am not sure we are ready yet to come to the end of our holiday, plus the fact that the weather is getting cooler is not cheering us much at all. We have chosen a park in Swan Valley on recommendations from friends and after setting up we took a drive to the Swan Valley Visitor Information Centre and passed through some beautiful countryside, plus many wineries and fresh food producers, almost heaven. The information centre is at Guildford a very picturesque little town and while we didn't have much of a look around today we are looking forward to coming back. We found a very helpful person at the Information centre and came away with an armful of brochures that I will sort through later tonight. I don't know that I felt so good about coming to Perth but I am now really excited about all the opportunities we have to look around.

Tuesday we had a home/cleaning day, not terribly exciting for anyone else but I was very happy to catch up with cleaning and washing. After that we drove to Aldi to take care of the shopping we needed and then on to Bunnings to pick up a few items. I took the time today to book a trip for us to Rottnest Island tomorrow and we are really looking forward to it.

We had the address for where we had to catch the ferry to Rottnest in our phone ready to go. The drive would take us 58 mins and we had to be at the boat by 8.30am so we left home at 7.35am but the traffic was horrific so we didn't arrive until 8.45am, I was a little stressed by then because I don't like being late for anything and I honestly thought for some time that we might miss the boat. The crew were very friendly and told me to relax, I had run ahead of Robb to try to hold the boat to give him time to get there, it all worked out alright. The trip to Rottnest takes 35 mins and the water was very calm making it a very smooth journey. We had to meet the bus we had booked for a tour around the island at 10.45am so we had an hour to fill in, we were both looking forward to having a coffee so we walked over to Dome and Robb found a table while I ordered our drinks. We walked from here over to the bus stop and the bus was there waiting for us. We were the only two on the tour but they were good enough to go ahead with it, we sat up front so that it would be easier to talk to the driver/guide. The tour took us all the way around the island and Leigh our guide was full of information having grown up there. I thought before the tour that Rottnest was all sand dunes and quokkas but it is much more than that. We learned that the island had a military history and some of the buildings that are still standing were built by aboriginal prisoners that had been taken there in the early days. There are a couple of privately owned resorts and another couple owned by the government, there are also two hotels and a couple of restaurants. Tourism keeps the island going, people visit to surf, swim and snorkel around the reefs. There aren't any privately owned cars on the island so the main forms of transport are bikes, there are a couple of tourist buses including a hop on hop off bus. There is also lots of wildlife and apart from the many Quokkas that are everywhere we came across a snake and a peacock and a large variety of birds. We had lunch at one of the hotels and sat by the fire there waiting for the ferry to return to take us back home. We had a good day, we both really liked Rottnest, the weather was overcast and we had to run between showers to return to the ferry.

We had chosen a few things we would do on our day in Freemantle and first on our list was to visit Freemantle Prison, our intention was to take a self guided tour but they weren't offering this option. We arrived at 11.25am and there was a tour leaving at 11.30am so we decided to jump onto this tour and we were very glad we did. Our guide Moira was a bit of a performer and she made all the stories of the prison fun and very interesting the outcome being we learnt a lot about the history of the Prison at Freemantle. After the tour we walked through the gallery which is worth a visit. We spent longer here than we had originally intended so drove from here to the wharf to have a look around. There are a few cafes and restaurants at the wharf and also Little Creatures Brewery which I was interested to visit so we stopped here and had a look around and then sat and ordered a couple of their beers to try. Our intention when we left here was to drive to Freemantle Markets but unfortunately they weren't open when we arrived and as it was getting later we decided to drive back home form here.

We drove to Kings Park in Perth to admire the beautiful views from here. We drove up to the top and parked our car and walked back to the lookout that has been built out from the side of the hill and gives magnificent views around the Swan River and Perth City. The park is very popular with walkers, runners and families, there were also a few groups of people out to enjoy the park and we came across two our three walking tour groups as we went around. The park is very well maintained and there were people working on the lawns and gardens when we were there, we also visited the couple of War Memorials in the park, both very impressive. Some of the trees have information tags on them telling you their age and what type of tree they are, it was interesting. Back in the car driving down to Perth Mint, Robb thought we had visited the mint last time we were in Perth but I wasn't too sure, as soon as we pulled up out front I knew we had taken a tour here previously so I took a few photos around the outside and some of the rooms inside, we admired lots of the jewelry in the shops and had a quick peak into the trading room and then left. Our last stop for the day was to be Hilary's Fishing Boat Harbour on our sons recommendation and we were very glad we did. The wharf is surrounded by shops, hotels, cafes and restaurants and you could imagine on a nice day it would be very busy down here, today wasn't great weather wise but there were still quite a few people out eating and drinking. We stopped at 3 Sheets and had a tasting paddle of beer, I wasn't too fussed about the beer but Robb liked two of them. We passed an ice cream shop walking back to the car so Robb chose a one scoop cone of Hazelnut ice cream which I tried and liked and then we drove back to camp.

Saturday was to be our catch up with friends day in Perth. We had made arrangements with Simon McMicking our next door neighbour's son and his fiancé, Jess, for a lunch date and Jess had booked a table at Mandoon Estate in the Swan Valley. This is a very impressive venue with a large dining room that looks like it would seat around 100 people, an outside bar area and a pizza hut for more informal dining. I don't think I have ever seen so many people at a winery and we had a booking for 11.00am and had to be out by 12.30pm for the next sitting, not sure if there was one after that but I wouldn't be surprised. The service was excellent as you can imagine and the staff did remind us, because we were a bit slow ordering, about the time we would have to leave but it was carried out respectfully. We all enjoyed our meals and when it was time to leave we went for a wander to have a look around the Estate. Simon and Jess had visited here previously so they were well acquainted with the Estate we eventually returned to the bar area and found a table and sat to finish our drinks and conversation. We walked back to the car park from here and departed, I gave Simon an extra hug from his mother before leaving. We drove back home from here to have a short rest before moving on to our next date.

Our next date was with our old friends from Tarwin Lower, Tony and Frankie Burgess and they had kindly invited us to their home in Guildford, Perth. We organised to arrive at 2.30pm it was only 8 minutes away from where we were staying but I wanted to pick up a couple of bottles of wine on the way which I did at Cellarmasters in Guildford, I picked up one white and one red because I wasn't sure what they drank anymore. We arrived on time and admired their beautiful old home which was on a large block with a very busy and spectacular garden. We walked through and sat outside on the back deck overlooking their fruit trees, sheep yard and chook pen, very pleasant. Perth had a lot of rain this year and they were showing us the flood line at the worst of the floods explaining why there were so many mosquitoes around. We all had lots to catch up on and the hours just slipped away before we realised how late it was getting, once again we were all amazed how insignificant those missing years were when you finally got back together.

On recommendation from our friends we decided to visit Kalamunda market on Sunday morning, they were going and we thought we might be able to catch up with each other there but that didn't work out. We were desperate for a coffee when we arrived and we could have gone to the cafe but I wanted to support the coffee van at the market. They advertised their coffee as winner of the best coffee award at Perth show so we thought it can't be too bad and the fact that there were about 15 people waiting in line for a coffee we thought had to be a good endorsement. We waited for about 20 minutes but eventually my name was called, it turned out to be a good coffee and worth the wait. We wandered around the market with coffee in hand and appreciated the amount of fresh produce on offer. We purchased a few items that we needed before leaving, I did put on a bit of a display when I dropped my bags and found my onions rolling down the hill but they were rescued by people passing by. From here we drove to Guildford to have a look around the streets we hadn't been down yet and passed the magnificent Guildford College where my friend worked, this is such a beautiful area of Perth. We could have explored a bit more from here but we both decided to have an early day and to drive on home. We will be moving onto Busselton from here tomorrow.