Perth

It was Saturday 16th October at 4am and we were sitting in Adelaide airport waiting for the check in desk to open. Everything looked good as the flight was showing on the board as the first departure for the day. 

We had already checked onto the flight the night before but we were unable to print our tickets when checking in so used Virgin Blue's machines at the airport. Mark tapped in the code and up flashed "flight cancelled". He tried again and the same thing happened. Strange. It was 45 minutes later when the check in staff arrived and they had no idea what was happening.  They looked into it and confirmed our worst nightmare, the flight had been cancelled due to a mechanical problem. Great. We were stuck in the airport with nothing open!

After some to-ing and fro-ing between the girl at check-in and her supervisor, we, along with half the queue, were transferred onto a Jetstar flight departing two hours later. As you can imagine, we were pretty relieved as we had already paid for our first night of accommodation in Perth. Next minute the girl at the Virgin Blue check-in counter started rambling on about a "cash shell". We looked at each other quizzically. She then explained that we had been tranferred free of charge to the rival airline and Virgin had also created a credit note for the value of the full fare. This can be used to book another flight. What a result!!! We were then given a further Aud$12 of coffee vouchers too. It just gets better and better.

We were due to be picked up at Perth airport by an old school mate that Mark knows who had emmigrated a few years ago. It had been a full 20 years since they had seen each other. Unfortunately, the later flight meant he couldn't pick us up so we got a shuttle bus to our accommodation, YHA Perth City.

We both remarked on how clean the city looked as we trundled through on the bus. The grass, trees and bushes were well manicured with plenty of greenery dotted around. There was also an adundance of cycling and running paths. After checking in we had a wander around. We grabbed some literature from the Information Centre, had a drink and a toasted sandwich in the main square, took some photos and grabbed a beer. 

We headed back to the room a little tired and decided to have a quick nap before getting ready to go out. It didnt help that we had an early flight that morning. Big mistake. We woke up at 6am and missed the Saturday night! Although a bit frustrating, it didn't turn out to be such a problem as we were able to get to the ferry port early and book a ferry with bike rental to Rottnest Island, which is just off the coast from Perth. 

We cruised along Swan River to Rottnest Island taking just over an hour. When we arrived we jumped on our bikes and rode up and down hills in blazing 30 degree heat. Our treat at the end of the 25km cycle was a well earned fish 'n chips and chicken goujon lunch. Lisa could barely walk after the ride and was hobbling around like John Wayne. In contrast, Mark looked like a tomato as he had caught a fair bit of sun. Perhaps this is the reason why he kept forgetting his camera. Twice he left it on the bike unattended when we walked down to the beach areas and once he left it on a bench at one end of the island. Fortunately someone ran the 50 yards after us to return it!!!

Rottnest Island is about 13 miles offshore and is a favourite holiday spot for Perth families. The island doesn't allow private cars so visitors wobble about on bikes or jump on the local bus! There are also plenty of beautiful beaches all around the island making it great fun for snorkelling. You see plenty of minted locals mooring up on the nearby deserted beaches with their fancy boats. 

After lunch we grabbed an ice cream and chilled out on the lawn near the ferry terminal. Our return ferry was booked for 4:45pm to Fremantle as there was no availability for a return to Perth when we booked our tickets. We were told to get to the boat 30 mins before departure so we could return the bikes. We did as requested, got onboard and grabbed our seats. We were looking out the window when Lisa pointed out two girls that we had spoken to when we first arrived at Rottnest Island. They were standing at the port side walking up and down the pathway posing....or so we thought. We both laughed when we pulled out as they hadn't boarded. Obviously too busy posing!!!! Our laughter was short lived when we realised that the time was just 4:30pm. We had boarded the wrong boat!!!! Fortunately, one of the stops on the boat was Fremantle so we were able to get off. We had no idea what the next stop was!!!

We arrived in the historic town of Fremantle which is 12 miles from Perth. The town has a few bars and restaurants and a cappuccino strip (coffee houses) along one street. We stopped off for dinner which consisted of cheese, crackers and a bottle of wine at a hotel near the esplande.