Hey Freo
A wild and remote location bests a city break for me any day. Not that I haven’t enjoyed many visits to cities. Days walking around Venice were like drifting through a lavish set on which no expense had been spared. Strikingly coloured, beautiful buildings came into view around every corner. There was no traffic noise – imagine! – only the sounds of Italian voices and gently lapping water.
I was very excited about my first visit to Sydney. I used the city’s iconic ferries to explore the renowned waterfront and Harbour beaches. Unfortunately these days, monstrous cruise liners dwarf and depreciate the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. If you’re planning a short visit, it’s worth checking the arrival and departure dates of these hideosities to avoid spoiling your experience. A cruise ship disgorges an awful lot of people on to Circular Quay.
Does everywhere change sooner or later?
But back to the West Australian leg of the Big Trip… We hadn’t been urbanites since Albany, but we’d booked four nights in Fremantle, having done Perth in 2006. There was no blog back then, although somewhere in my attic, in a box of research material waiting patiently for a book, there’s a notebook of recollections from 06.
Fremantle is older than Perth, being a city in its own right as well as Perth’s port. It sits across the Swan River from Perth and felt more relaxed than its better-known neighbour. A city break meant we enjoyed the comparative luxury of a hotel, the Hougoumont, not far from Freo’s main drag, and with secure surface car-parking for The Van, so no danger of slicing the roof off on entry.
On our first afternoon we went to take a look at Bathers Beach, a small inner-city beach south of the Swan estuary and facing the Indian Ocean. We walked along Fleet Street jetty to South Mole Lighthouse, which was vertically challenged and green.
Pictures of Freo…
We stayed in a shipping container
Australasian Darter drying himself
Perth’s port
Narrows Bridge from Mt Eliza Lookout
South Mole Lighthouse
We took the train across Narrows Bridge, and via Cottesloe and Subiaco, to Kings Park and Botanic Garden, a Perth must-see. We were immediately distracted by one of the best-quality gift shops ever, Aspects of Kings Park. Having spent more in there than was budgeted for the whole of our stay in Fremantle, we tore ourselves away to look at some other wonderful things, for free.
Mottlecah gum seed pods
White Everlasting
Peppermint tree
Bottle with a view
Cut-leaf Banksia
Prostrate Banksia
Hakea
Grevillea
Kangaroo Paw 1
Kangaroo Paw 2
Parrot Bush
On leaving the gardens, having concluded they were still the nicest in Aus, we walked for what felt like a million miles to a train station from where we could get back across the Swan. We went to eat seafood from Joe’s Fish Shack in Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour.
We headed back into Perth a second day: I had to get a haircut and my friend needed a new screen protector for his phone. It was a city-centre day, but chores had to be done. Later we enjoyed great Italian food at La Sosta, back in Freo. Lastly, on another fine day, we drove into the sticks to meet up with friends at Sittella winery, near the upper reaches of the Swan River northeast of Perth. We enjoyed a long lunch and a great catch-up.
So, Freo was fun.
Sittella winery
