Perth Holiday 2014, December 28 (The Grisly Rotto)

The stupid fridge woke me up at 2am again, so I gave up and switched it off. Maybe this contributed to the new rocky road flavour Supa Shake being a little disappointing when I grabbed it out for breakfast several hours later, probably a little warm...

I took an early train from Perth out to Fremantle, it only took 30 minutes but most of the stops looked pretty deserted along the way. Following the crowd from the station got me to the small city centre, where Market Street incredibly takes you down to Fremantle Markets. Only the produce area was open before 9am, so I just got some fruit, no good bakeries.

Looks like something from the 1980's.

The Esplanade wasn't far off so there was still time to explore that too. There was a big Ferris Wheel that looked like it actually worked, a shipwreck gallery and a collection of fish and chip restaurants, as you might expect. And some nice beaches too. Walking back to the ferry terminal I also saw the Round House, whatever that is, and Arthur's Head Reserve which was just a couple of houses built in the early 1900's from what I could gather.

The wheel !

Shipwreck Galleries, probably better to come back after I've been out at sea.

Round House, more like Octagon House.

Some Fremantle beach.

Arthur's Head reserve.

The ferry terminal had a big shed across the road with lots of market stores, so I thought there was a good chance I might come across a Fremantle magnet, sadly the closest I found was some useless postcards...

The ferry to Rottnest Island was delayed, but by 10 minutes instead of 10 hours. Even though the boat was large and carrying a few hundred passengers it was a very choppy ride, I was feeling really seasick towards the end but just managed to hang on.

I'm on a boat.

Most people head for the bike hires as soon as they arrive, but I thought I'd be able to suffice on foot, probably a bad idea in hindsight, even though I can't even remember the last time I rode a bike, probably more than 15 years ago. I picked one of the shorter routes around the island and soon arrived at Bathurst Lighthouse, I think it's what they named the V8 race after. The water in each of the bays around the island was quite amazing, a two toned light blue and dark blue swirl.

No quokkas allowed.

Mount Panorama ?

I guess this is Skyline then.

The other surprise on the island was how many small houses they had, I thought there would not be much of anything, but there were thousands of these little villas, no idea how many are used for permanent residency or what they are valued at.

After admiring the view at the lighthouse I continued along the northern path via The Basin, Longreach Bay, Geordie Bay and Parakeet Bay which were all good but quite similar. By the time I had stopped in at each of these places I'd used up about half of my time available before boarding the ferry back the other way, so I took a different route back which was further inland. Besides being incredibly windy, there were several lakes which had these really cool orange and pink colour transitions, I guess it was caused by the sand or the rocks below.

Between one bay and another.

The lake is pink, so it's called Pink Lake.

Finally back at the settlement I stopped in at the bakehouse for a snack, the best option was the marvellous looking ronut which is what they call a cronut on Rottnest Island apparently. The general store sadly had no magnets once again. I had made up some time on the way back so I started down to Bickley Bay as well, but eventually ran out of time and had to come back to make sure I got a good spot on the ferry - on the bottom level this time, which seemed to cause a bit less seasickness, although it could very well have just been a coincidence.

Gotta catch em all.

Ronut.

I was back in Fremantle by mid afternoon, so I still had the opportunity to revisit a few places that were not open in the morning. The Round House was about to close so I started there, it was a waste of time though as the inside is just one round foyer with a few artifacts and historical information in some small rooms surrounding it. I was in and out in about two minutes.

The Shipwreck Galleries were a bit better, although it just breezed through this place too. There was a lot of recovered pieces such as anchors, diving helmets and a small part of some larger ship. I was a little bit disappointed that:

• There was no buried treasure
• There were no pirates
• I didn't get the bends during my visit

It's either flotsam or jetsam.

The rest of the Fremantle Markets was also open, but it was just the standard market junk, it was extremely busy as well so I didn't stay long. Across the road was Fremantle Oval which is probably where the Dockers train, or where some local WAFL team plays. I can confirm it also servers as market car parking the rest of the time.

Are you ready for some football ?

Also nearby was the old Fremantle Prison. The tours ran for a little over an hour, which I thought might be a bit long, but also the next and final tour of the day wasn't for another 45 minutes, so that sealed the deal. However...I did find an overpriced steel magnet at the gift shop, so it was a worthwhile visit!

Fremantle Prison.

So my last activity in Fremantle involved a walk up a steep road to reach Monument Hill. I got lost for a moment and wasn't sure what to expect to get there, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice big open space on the highest point in Fremantle. The park had a Gallipoli monument in the middle, hence the name, and you could even see some of the tallest buildings in Perth on the horizon.

Monument Hill.

At the monument on that hill.

I made it back to the station with one minute to spare again - my luck is started to turn around it seems - and headed home to Perth. Northbridge was again the best option for dinner, I did a bit of a search and settled on Outback Jack's because they had nachos and milkshakes. A great way to finish any day!

Nachos !