Week 39: Fremantle WA - Margaret River WA

 Stats Overview

Kms Travelled: 740

Kms Hiked: none (but we did cycle 25kms around Rottnest Island!)

No. of Camps: 3

The Adventures

After avoiding the city for as long as we could, we finally made it to Perth...and are still married even after the stress of having to navigate a caravan through all the busy roads! Aside from having to pay way too much money for parking, we had a lot of fun exploring the capital of WA. However, the best part of our week was getting to catch up with my sister Nicole who has been doing some travelling around Australia as well. Will and I soon discovered how long we had been on our own, as we were like kids hyped up on red cordial wanting to show her everything and tell her all about our adventures. I don't think the poor thing got a word in edge wise for the first day! Although she did draw the line at looking at our 4000 photos...

The highlight of our week was making the trip over to Rottnest Island which is located just off the coast of Perth. The island is most famous for its colony of Quokkas which are a cute little animal which often look like they are smiling. We saw lots of Quokkas and were lucky enough to time our visit with joey season so we got to see the cute babies as well! The other fun part of Rottnest is that it is a car free island (except for the council vehicles and buses) so the best way to see the island is by bicycle. We really enjoyed riding around the island and seeing all the views, although we had all had enough of the hills by the time we returned our bikes! Fortunately, the island isn't too big so we were able to see most things during our visit.

While we were in Perth we also visited a number of museums, with notable highlights being the Shipwrecks Museum and the Fremantle Prison. We went on a bit of an adventure at the prison by doing their tunnels tour which takes you underground. The original convicts in Fremantle dug a number of bores on the prison grounds to provide a more safe and secure water source for both the prison and the colony. Later on, prisoners were used to build an array of tunnels beneath the prison grounds which served as a reservoir. The tour had us climb down 17m worth of ladders, where we then got to explore the tunnels by foot and also by canoe. It was definitely a lot of fun and quite incredible to think all the tunnels were carved out of the limestone by hand!

We have now made our way south down to Margaret River where our tour of the taste buds will shortly commence. We can't wait to sample all the produce of this area, although, we may have to start looking for some hikes, otherwise we may not be able to fit into our clothes by the time we finish our tour of the area!

Kodak Moments

We got a photo with a Quokka! - Rottnest Island

It was tough cycling around when looking at these views! (Although the hills did get tiresome after a while!) - Rottnest Island

So many pretty beaches to explore! - Rottnest Island

A super cute baby Quokka! - Rottnest Island

It has been a while between skyscrapers! - Elizabeth Quay Bridge, Perth

Part of the recovered hull from the notorious Batavia shipwreck which sunk in 1629! - Fremantle

All the gear and no idea! Although we did have lots of fun exploring below the streets of Fremantle. - Fremantle Prison

The mega mural which made a nice change from all the silo artwork we have seen. - Wellington Dam

Made a quick stop to see Australia's longest timber pile jetty. - Busselton

We had to stop in and check out the little village of gnomes...there are literally thousands of them! - Gnomesville

So nice to have a campsite with beautiful green grass and cute little lambs to entertain us! - Donnybrook