G'DAY,

After arriving back to the Perth area on Thursday we decided to go to a place just south of Perth called Fremantle, perhaps the coolest town we have ever been in. We had come here on the train a few weeks ago and loved it so thought it was only right to come back for a few days. We parked the camper in a hostel carpark and stayed in the van but used the hostel facilites.

We headed out to the "Cappuccino strip" for something to eat, the Cappuccino Strip is the main high st which is lined with amazing Architecture housing the most amazing shops, bars, restrtaunts and brewarys, it seems that most of the pubs in Freo brew there own ale in the pub which is pretty cool to see. Theres also a big live music scene in Freo lots of live bands, buskers and digeredooers especially at the weekend and in the market area which was pretty lively.

After a wander round a few pubs we headed back to the hostel and met in with a few fellow Scots....after a few jars we headed to bed!

On the Friday morning we got up early and went to the Freemantle prison for a guided tour " Doing Time", the Freemantle prison was built by British convicts in the mid 18th century, the British prisons were getting over crowded so they thought the best thing to do would be to ship thousands of them in to Freo and build a new prison. Convicts were then seen as a problem for the lack of resources in WA and contrabuted to building, roads, footpaths, jettys and even the Perth town hall. The prison was good to see although we wouldn't have liked to have been locked up then, the cells were 3m by 1m, a hammock on the wall and bucket for the toilet that got emptied once a day...YUCK

There was still capital punishment in the prison till 1984, before getting the death sentance you would be kept in solatry confiendment which had no light, no bed just a bucket for the toilet, they were allowed out for 1 hour a day into a small court yard. Believe it or not people now have functions in the prison such as weddings and birthday parties....WEIRDOS

After our trip to the prison we drove out to Bon Scotts Grave, Not exactly what we thought it would be like, it was just a tiny little grave with his name on it with some flowers in a bottle of whisky. I was expecting a grave shaped like a guitar and something about AC/DC on it, never the less we paid him some respect and left. We actually seen the jail sell he was in when visiting the prison. (pics to follow)

That night we headed out to a pub called "Little Creatures" which was awesme, it was huge great high celings to accomodate the massive tanks for brewing there ale. There was also a wood fired stove which made the most amazing pizza,l and Muscles which Jamie loved! We had a chilled night in Little Creatures and spoke to a few local Ozzies..

On the Sat morning we went into the town to the weekend market which was bustling, We ended up in an Italian butcher which sold haggis so we bought some and headed back to Perth to cook a traditional Scottish meal in preperation for the big game that night. Incase you have forfotten thats the game where Scotland got beat by Italy!!

We had a few beers in the house then headed out to the city with Kate and the "Mo trio" ( Jen, Laura, Romi) to watch the footie, because kick off was 2am (oz time) it was all about pace drinking which unfortunatley am no good at so cant really remember watching it, which was prob not a bad thing. ( Marc was so drunk that he cheered when Italy scored cause he thought it was Scotland, then he fell ASLEEP in the toilets and was woken up by the half time "pie lady"....due to his drunken state he was thretened to be thrown out several times by the bouncers, Aye you can take the Boy out of Brechin.......)

Feeling a little worse for wear I was woken by a very cheerful Jamie up at 9am on the Sunday morning, (still half canned) to go whale watching, the whale migrate from September to November to the Antartic for the summer, which gives people on the west coast the perfect chance to see them. We got ready and were on the way out the door and the phone rang, it was the charter company sdaying everyone on the morning boat was sea sick so the afternoon charter was cancelled and there would be no more boats going out again this season as most of the whales had already passes by, totally gutted.

So back to Freo it was, there was a massive parade on live bands playing and a rock piper which was pretty cool. We met the "Mo trio" and chilled in Freo all day sipping a few cold ones on the strip Before returning to Perth. It was a sad day on the Monday morning as Bess was getting handed back, we never wanted to give her back but unfortunately it was time to say goodbye! Bye Bye Bess......

Speak soon folks......sorry we are so behind with our blog just now!