We took a day-long tour of the Esperance area in southwest Australia. The town is not large but is a major port in the region (iron, nickel, grain). It has some of the most beautiful beaches in Australia with the finest white sand we have ever seen. It also has an exact replica of Stonehinge, built in 2011. Esperance is quite isolated so it is only beginning to become a tourist destination with the cruise industry just starting to stop here. We are now at se...

We spent a few hours wandering around Fremantle, just a few blocks from the cruise ship. Fremantle is a very pretty port city. Even the port area is very clean and neat. The city has done a great job of preserving and maintaining several sq. blocks of old buildings. It also has two quite large markets. The biggest is in downtown Fremantle and is in a building dating from 1897. We leave this evening. Our next stop is Esperance in two days.

We took the train from Fremantle to Perth. Very convenient. It leaves from a station very near the cruise ship and ends in downtown Perth. The cost was a special weekend all-day rate of $12 covering all public transportation (train, buses, ferries) for a family. Great deal. We wandered around central Perth and its parks. While we only drove by it, Perth has a 1000 acre park, King's Park, near the city centre. We also took one of the free buses that travels...

We arrived in Fremantle (the port for Perth) today after three days at sea since leaving Indonesia. While we skipped Exmouth due to high seas, we got to Perth a day early and will have 3 days here. Today we took a tour that involved a cruise on the Swan River from Fremantle to Perth, a short tour of Perth and a visit to the Caversham Wildlife Park outside of Perth. We will be spending more time in Perth and Fremantle the next two days. The Caversham Wildlife ...