Jack’s Blog

Saturday 2nd May

Up at 5:30 AM and started getting organised. No shower or shave-too difficult!

It is just on 8:30 AM so only 40 minutes before we are due in Perth.

Good breakfast again! Sat with Taffy and Pat… . What an interesting couple! Both are biochemists. He is 82, and she is a similar age, and they are going to drive across the Tanami. He is only tiny and so is she-pretty game!! He has only recently realised what a bunch of immoral people there are in the pharmaceutical industry.

A slow trip into Perth at first because the train goes through a mountainous area-not very high but the line cuts through the mountains and it is winding and slow. Once we got onto the flats it became quicker.

It’s a beautiful day outside but it could be cold.

We arrived on time but the IP station is a few kilometres out of town. Glad to be off the train as the single room is so restricting. Brendan and I caught a local train-he to Fremantle and me to Miss Maud’s hotel in Perth CBD. Had to find my way to the hotel but I was there within 15 minutes which was about 10 AM. Not allowed into a room but I was allowed to leave my luggage there.

I walked down to Barrack Street wharf but no boats at that time going to Rottnest Island so I decided to just take the boat to Fremantle and have a look around. I had to wait till 11 AM and then we were off. It’s a beautiful day and a very pleasant trip-very knowledgeable skipper who talked for almost the entire trip. I didn’t realise how big the Swan River is. It took 1 ¼ hours to get to Fremantle. The Sun Princess was docked near where we were to disembark. I left it too late on the boat to go to the toilet. I couldn’t find a public toilet, so I found an hotel, went in and there was Brendan- he had checked into the local youth hostel and was waiting to move in. I had my comfort stop and then we had a beer. After the 1st one we decided to move to another pub to try something different.

Not knowing where to go we followed the crowd and found an area with a couple of pubs and a lot of coffee shops. These were crowded-I suppose the Sun Princess crowd helped. We chose a pub that was a little bit away from the crowd and continued our drinking.

After three beers we split up as Brendan had to get back and check into the youth hostel and he didn’t want to miss out on a bed. I went and got a Subway for lunch and just as I finished eating Brendan walked past looking for an ATM.

I caught the Cat which is a free bus service around the Fremantle CBD. The stupid woman driver kept closing the centre door on people trying to get on board and then closing it on them when they tried to go into the front. I got a bruised wrist from this performance. This is a free service so it is hard to imagine why she wouldn’t let people on via the centre door. My only bad personal experience so far. I didn’t do the full circuit but got off and walked to the very big modern hotel that Miri and I had looked at previously. I bashed my watch against the door and it fell off-the pin came out of the band. I was lucky to find the pin. A jeweller put it together for me free of charge which made up for the stupid Cat driver.

I wandered around Fremantle a bit more and got some toothpaste and toothbrushes from the local Coles supermarket-I have not put these into my luggage as I had been told they would be included in the Indian Pacific toiletries bag. They weren’t!

I caught the local train back to Fremantle and walked back to the hotel and checked in. A very nice room-very big compared to my room in Adelaide and about 10 times bigger than the cabin on the Indian Pacific. The shower was huge which was a relief.

The hotel lift is still an original where you open the doors yourself to get it to work. Staff not really helpful-but I suspect that is Perth. I’m entitled to a smorgasbord breakfast but because I leave so early I have to get breakfast delivered but it is just a continental one.

Did some washing and battery charging and now I’m out having a drink and writing this while I have a beer. Then I will go looking for a reasonable meal.

Walked to Northbridge. Prices here are very high. Settled for Cheesy Nachos at The Brass Monkey Pub- $10.50 plus a pint of Little Creatures Pale Ale $9. Huge plate of nachos and it took a long time to eat. I went for a 2nd beer, hoping that no one would take away my unfinished meal.
I got back to the hotel about 8:10 PM and did some organising-watched the first part of the Bill after washing socks and undies. My watch fell apart again when I started washing, so put everything into a plastic bag-I’ll try another jeweller somewhere else. Kept falling asleep so shower and asleep by 9:45 PM