October 11th, today we decided to shout ourselves a night out, so it’s off to the Casino for us. Val punched the address into the navigator and off we set. 45 minutes later we arrive at the address to find that it’s a short dead end street, at a northern coastal suburb. After getting directions we find that the suburb that has the Casino Complex is Burswood, not Birdswood, so with the correct suburb now in the navigator, 30 minutes later we arrive at the Casino. It’s an impressive building that is an Entertainment Complex, with Resort, Theatres, Conference Rooms, Restaurants and a Casino. 24 hour parking was only $6, very good. We went to the Emporium for dinner, Val had Chinese and I went for the Roast Beef, with pecan pie and coffee to finish up with. All the food was very good and reasonably priced. No poker machines as we know them, but they had hundreds of Card Machines, Bingo machines and all sorts of variety of different games to take your money. I enjoyed a stint at the Blackjack table. We had a very enjoyable night, not a winning night, and we were back home at our Caravan Park in 12 minutes, can you believe that.
October 13th, The Territory went in for its 75000 klm service this morning. Not usually a problem but when I went to pick it up I’m given the REPORT. 9 problems plus 2 front tyres needing replaced, 3 marked as needing immediate attention at approx. $2200.00. Spoilt my day, I can tell you. After a late lunch we did a short Wine Tour of Pinelli, Sandalford and Lancaster Wineries. To-morrow we leave for Fremantle.
October 14th, Booked into Coogee Beach Tourist Park and then had a drive around Fremantle.
October 15th, Val went to The Esplanade Hotel to see the China Painting Exhibition. They had entries from all over the world. A caravanning friend from Queensland, we met recently, is a China Painter and had some of her work in the exhibition. I went off on my own and Toured “Bathers Beach”, Whalers Tunnel, The Round House, The Maritime Shipwrecks Museum and the War Memorial.
October 16th, Today we were picked up from the Caravan Park at 9.15am to do a Bus Tour of Rottnest Island. We had a 30 minute Ferry ride out to the Island, a very nice lunch at the Dome Café followed by a 2 hour 40 klm Guided Bus Tour of the Island. We were able to get up close to the Quokkas, there are 10000 on the Island. We were dropped back to Caravan Park at 5pm. What a great day we had, Val did the shops and I did the historical stuff and the scenery on the Bus Tour was fantastic.
October 17th, I went to Fremantle Prison for the “Doing Time Tour”, it runs for 1.5 hours and follows the life of the inmates from booking in through to being discharged. This is a huge complex and was till recently the Maximum Security Prison for Western Australia. The Tour was interesting and informative. After lunch we went to a new estate, called “Port Coogee”, being built just up from our Caravan Park. There were 2 Exhibition Homes open for inspection, so we had a look through them. They were 5 bedroom, 2 storey, furnished in a modern style and both absolutely mindboggling. We didn’t ask the price but would expect it to be in the millions. Some of the features were indoor/outdoor kitchen, huge rooms, ensuites with spa bath included, built in Pool, large verandah with views over The Indian Ocean. We then went into the City to the Queensgate Markets, which impressed Val. They had everything but not lots of the same thing, as we have found at a lot of Markets. On the way home we called into The Chocolate Factory to do some sampling. It was very hot today, on the news they said it was the hottest October day (at 37deg.) in a lot of years (forgotten exactly how long ago).
October 18th, Today I went to the Western Australian Maritime Museum, where they have an excellent display of all types of boats that were used for industry and pleasure, in Fremantle. There prize exhibit being the Yacht “Australia II” with its winged keel, that WON the America’s Cup, which had been held by America for 132 years. After lunch, we decided to take our last look at the city and have a coffee and cake at the “Capuccino Strip”. Little did we know that the middle of the City was blocked off for a Parade for the “Blessing of the Fleet”. We had been to a Blessing of the Fleet Ceremony in Nelson Bay but it was nothing like this one. A Big Parade with Police escorts, that was preceded by daytime fireworks and the streets were very crowded. Parking was almost impossible. I did get to have my cappuccino and a slice of the best carrot cake while Val had a glass of wine. To-morrow we move on to our next stop, which is Busselton.
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