Howdy all. Continuing on from last Sunday’s post about my time in Perth, I’m sharing more of what I have been up to earlier this week! So yes, as close to live blogging as I get! In my first Perth post I recounted the stuff I got up to in the first few days, centred around the city of Perth itself. The rest of my time in Perth involved three separate day trips from the Western Australian capital – to Fremantle (the port), Rottnest Island famous for its small marsupials known as quokkas and on my last full day I did a sunset tour two and a half hours north of Perth to Nambung National Park to see the ‘Pinnacles’. In amongst those days I had a day of rest too in Perth where I took it easy and had a very nice dinner at Shu Japanese Restaurant.

Fremantle

We headed out to Fremantle on Sunday morning. It’s a pretty simple train trip from Perth of about 30 minutes. The buses in the CBD are free as well so actually I would say Perth public transport does the job. An all day pass for buses and trains is only $7AUD too which is excellent value for money.

Fremantle is a definite must visit if in Perth, and could certainly occupy a full day as it pretty much did for us. It’s the ‘wharfie’ or ‘docker’ district, but also predates Perth in its founding and was pretty much the first proper settlement in Western Australia from the late 1820s onwards. Convict labour was brought over in the 1850s as the town was struggling and convicts set about building a lot of the infrastructure and today it’s definitely gentrified with loads of eateries and crowds to boot.

Highlights included the Maritime Museum where you can see the Australia II yacht that won the America’s Cup back in the early 1980s – this was a huge celebration for Australia, no country other than the USA had ever won the race before then. Of course, here you can learn loads about the history of Fremantle.

It’s not far from the ‘round house’ – the oldest structure in Fremantle, it provides great views of the harbour and was originally a prison with just thirteen prison cels all facing inwards where one guard could keep an eye on all. And not far away – the Shipwrecks museum, where you can see the remains of the Dutch vessel from the 1600s ‘Batavia’.

The Fremantle Markets were packed but worth some time, lots to buy and lots to eat! And the best part of the day was the tour I took of the Fremantle Prison, built in limestone to house the convicts brought over in the 1850s, it was built by the convicts and the limestone was cut further up the hill, also by the convicts. The convicts contribution to Fremantle can not be overstated, they built half the place!

Fremantle was a great day out, sad to see some of the Fremantle Dockers’ colours and signs still up (the AFL team) – they lost this year’s AFL Grand Final after imploding in the last four minutes of the game.

Rottnest Island

We were up early for Rottnest Island. We booked our ferry a few days early – on weekends especially they can sell out in peak tourist season. Train back to Fremantle and the ferry across (30 minute ride) to this amazing, beautiful island.

We elected to take a bus around the island, there is a hop-on hop-off bus doing a circuit every 15 minutes. The first place you land is Thompson’s Bay aka ‘the Settlement’, where we stocked up on supplies and saw a number of quokkas, Rottnest Island is the only island where they live so it’s a little special and they are adorable and not in any way frightened of people.

The rest of the day was highlighted by snorkelling at Henrietta Rocks where there is a small shipwreck right close to the coast. I also snorkelled at Parker Point, although I think I missed the best bits there there was still a bit to see in underwater vegetation and fish life.

Then the Wadjemup Lighthouse, a bit of a walk up the hill to what I presume was the highest point of the island. I went up to the very top of the lighthouse singing ‘The Song of the Jollyrock Lighthouse’ (this is only going to make sense to fans of the TV show ‘The Goodies’) on a tour which was really a little special and of course afforded some great views from every angle of Rottnest Island.

We toured around the rest of the island on the bus and saw a few more quokkas before the day was done, and then took the ferry back to the mainland.

Pinnacles Tour

I write this post on the day we fly out of Perth in the lobby of the hotel, so the Pinnacles tour was yesterday. Picked up at 1pm in central Perth the tour took us northwards to Nambung National Park. There were three or four stops on the way for coastal views and photos. We saw some very interesting native flora as well that is only found in Western Australia including the grass tree, and some of the landscape was truly alien-like.

Finally at Nambung and the Pinnacles about an hour before sunset, there’s a two kilometre walking track in and around these limestone pillars that rise up to 3.5 metres from the ground. It is believed that thousands of years ago the land was sand, and much higher than today. Water seeped into the limestone creating space/gaps/fissures and then the sand was blown away leaving the pillars. It’s just one theory I should point out.

Walking around this area was indeed super cool. It had been a cloudy day but the sun dipped below the band of clouds just before sunset and the effect was magical. We had dinner as the stars came out and then a little star gazing to finish the night before the long drive back to Perth.

So, it’s been a great week (7 nights) and by the time this is published on the blog I’ll be back at work. Sigh. Not particularly looking forward to it, I’m not going to lie! Still, it’s all part of how I can travel, right? Next year at some point expect detailed posts on these three day trips. Of course I am still finishing up the posts from the 2025 round the world trip too! Ahh, so much work!

Thanks for popping in today! Take care wherever you may be in the world right now and … May the Journey Never End!