The last few days in Perth have flown by. We've been on visits to Fremantle (or 'Freo' as the locals call it) where we had a good walk around the markets with Pam. We had a picnic in the park and introduced Pam to tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches (she seemed to really like them!!) and then went for a refreshing beer at the Little Creature brewery which was pretty cool. The beer garden overlooked the marina and a small galleon-type boat. Josh had a pale ale, Pam had a half of Ruby and I had a Pipsqueak cider. It was a lovely way to spend the Labour Day.
Pam also took us to Mandurah which is a peaceful little 'city' on the banks on the estuary. It's obviously undergone a lot of building work in recent years and many of the buildings were white concrete and chrome modern-style which seemed to fit with the white and chrome yachts in the marina. Again we had a nice picnic lunch and had a wander through the art gallery before heading back as we all felt pretty sleepy! Tuesday night is Pam's pizza night but we convinced her to go for fish and chips at Hillary's boat quay. Rodger joined us and we stuffed ourselves with yummy fish and chips watching the sun go down and the one-legged seagull tout for scraps.

Somehow we managed to squeeze in one last trip to Mullaloo beach on Thursday. Josh brought his GIANT beach ball which was a birthday present and took a long time and a concerted team effort to blow up. After about 2 minutes of throwing it to each other the wind took it and I couldn't swim after it fast enough. It was gone and there was no hope of retrieving it. We stood in the waves forlornly watching the ball drift out to sea, glinting merrily in the sunshine. It was a bit like Tom Hanks in castaway... "Wilson! WILSONNN!!!" The little kids along the beach looked just as upset as we were!
But then...
(Queue the Baywatch theme music) Two daring sea kayakers began paddling at great speed towards our stricken beach ball! There was hope! And then there was the roar of a jetski engine as the coastguard came flying in our direction. And then there was the twinge of guilt that they were only rescuing our beach ball and not some poor dear on her lilo. Oops! One of the kayakers reached it and grabbed hold of it, wrangling it back to shore between his teeth! The kids were delighted! Then came the walk of shame down the beach to mumble those ever-awkward words 'can I have my ball back please?' And to thank them kindly for their efforts and daring rescue, and to apologise for losing it in the first place! Obviously the whole episode provided a great deal of amusement and entertainment for the whole beach.

On Thursday night, our last in Perth, we decided to cook a meal for Pam to thank her for her hospitality. Pulling out all the stops we made (from scratch):
Lamb curry
Rice
Onion bhaji
Flatbreads
Raita
Passionfruit and mango pavlova with homemade meringue
Pam seemed to enjoy the meal and we were VERY full afterwards (although not too full for a Cadbury's chocolate finger or two! ).

This morning we packed our bags feeling sad to be leaving. Our departure was the reverse of our first morning in Perth, some 4 weeks ago now; bacon and egg sandwich followed by a last visit to the Pinnaroo Roo's. We all got a bit choked up at the airport, we've got on really well and Pam has been so kind to us (even if she does insist she's done nothing)! Thanks again!

A short flight 'over east' brings us to Adelaide and back into the world of youth hostels. We're also now on Adelaide time which is 2.5hrs ahead of Perth. This hostel seems clean and quiet which is a good start! We're looking forward to exploring Adelaide for the next couple of days!

Anna xxx