We said our good-byes to the Cronans who were sticking around the area following up on a couple of job leads. Can't believe we have spent the last three months with these guys on and off, how time flies when your having an absolute blast!! It was yet another short drive to Butler, just on the north outskirts of Perth. We were going to stay with a family we had met in Bali, oh what a lifetime that feels like. We were feeling a bit strange in asking them if we could camp out on their front lawn while we explored Perth for a few days, but we were getting low on cash and would be great to see them again. So why not kill two birds with one stone. When we arrived, we were greeted by Narelle, Damian, Jackson and Sienna. Felt weird seeing them in this 'normal' life since we saw them last in our tropic oasis of Hard Rock Hotel in Bali. Felt a little weird at first, but we all soon loosened up and were sitting around catching up on news over a cold one in no time. Was so great to have all these mates around Australia, cant believe how lucky we are to have met all these fabulous people.
In total we stayed three nights out the front of Damo's and Narelle's. Felt weird being on someones front lawn camping out, the first time we have done this on the trip. Great to have the luxury of water and electricity again though!! After our first night we got up and headed off to explore Freemantle for the day. Was feeling a bit better about camping out for free as we took Sienna for the day due to it being school holidays and they had no sitter for her. Boo and Meg were glad for the company as well l think. As we drove into "Freo" (as the locals call it), it was like driving back in time. The city looked amazing with its old heritage grand buildings and clean crisp streets. There was a bustle of people walking around checking out the boutiques and you could smell the coffee in the air....we were amongst civilisation again. Marty and l were keen to check out the Freemantle Prison, quite an ionic prison in Australia, the last of its kind that recently shut its gates in 1997. It also was the place where the last hanging in Australia occurred. The prison was huge and quite eery in some parts more than others. The halls were long and dark with plenty of cells that would have housed many evil men. The tour guide who took us thru added alot of story telling character to the information he was sharing, which kept the girls engaged for most of it. The chapel in the prison was the most striking of it all, which is surprising seeing l am the last person interested in religion. But having said that, for some reason l am a huge lover of the church buildings, not so much what they stand for or preach. This chaple was grande, and you could feel the history whilst we sat listening to the stories from the tour guide. The windows fascinated me, and in the end became a bit spooky seeing the guide told us that in one of the windows a ghosts reflection could be seen on the outside of the church. Still gives me goosebumps recalling the story. We were lead to the hanging room, which was lite up and dramatised, l could only imagine what real drama took place in this small dark room. The hanging rope used for the last hanging is still in place. What a gruesome sight it would be to watch someone die from hanging......the girls didnt really grasp the concept, which was ok really in my eyes. All they ended up knowing was that people died by the rope around their necks, not what torture their deaths would have been. After the educational and fascinating morning at the prison we decided to take the girls to Macca's for lunch. Do you think we could find any around? The girls were past hungry, apparently they were starving. I was happy to call into a bakery, but Marty had decided and become determined to find a Chicken Treat to have lunch at. After 30 minutes of driving around and listening to the girls whinge, he found a Chicken Treat, in which case we were left very disappointed. Not the best meal at all. Girls loved it though, naturally. With bellies all full we headed back into Freemantle to check out the shipwreck museum. This was another grand building set by the foreshore. Best part was, it was free!!! As always, Marty headed off in his own direction which meant l was suck with kids with all three girls, who by now were full of energy. I tried to take in the history and readings of the Batavia ship and other remarkable stories, but the girls had become loud and wild. They climbed up all over the canons and pretend to be pirates! If l wasnt their parent it would have been great to sit back and watch the girls imagination go wild, but instead, l tried to settle them down before we got into trouble by the staff. Overall, the artefacts and collections that are housed are fabulous and the way it was displayed was brilliant, very intriguing and glamourous to the eye. Especially the partial ship replica in the middle of the room, along with the numerous large cannons of course!! I decided that the girls needed to run off some steam, so after getting them to get down off the huge anchors outside the shipwreck museum, Marty and l took them up the road for a walk up to the lookout. Just as we got up there there was a huge ship coming into port. Now apart from Devonport in Tassie, l had never really seen big ships like these before, and l was fascinated. They are humungous and so graceful in the water. We got a good look across the bay, which then led to the girls complaining they were hot and wanted to swim. Well l had promised, so reluctantly, Marty drove us down to Freemantle South beach where he proceeded to sit in the car because we had had small grumpy words to each other and he didnt want to swim. Again, l was left with three girls. It would have been fine but l knew Sienna wasnt the best swimmer, luckily she knew her limits so stayed close to shore. We all enjoyed cooling down with all the other hundred Freo people, most l think were English though as it wasnt too hot. After cooling off, we headed back to grumps in the car and back to Butler. Marty and l smoothed over the mood between us, again l think its escalated with the stress of nothing happening on the job front and low cash funds. We unwound with a beer or two with Narelle and Damian and a BBQ for dinner. Overall, a great and exhausting day out, but wouldnt change it for the world.
The next day we headed into Perth for look around by ourselves. Was good to have a day to ourselves, and we had alot to look at as it was going to be our last day in the Perth area. Marty and l were again having an off day, and it went on and off throughout. Overall though it was a good day out, with only one real regret :( First stop was to have a look at the Bell Tower. Pricey and over-rated. We got to ring the bells, but only due to luck. If we hadnt have been able to do that, then it wouldve been a total rip off. Girls loved ringing the bells, and the lady that took the bell ringing talk was definately passionate about it and had rung many bells all over the world. Was interesting at how much went into orhestrating the ringing of tower bells, quite fascinating really. On the way out of the Bell Tower l became a little obsessed with the 'love locks'. Love the inscriptions and different style of locks, took a few too many pics Marty reckoned. It was around lunch time so we got a loaf of bread and headed to Kings Lake to have our picnic peanut butter sanga's. Yes things were tight! As we were setting up, Marty and l had words once again, think was building up, and it was over nothing but everything as is always the case. It ended with him storming off and me and the girls having a quick look around Kings Park. What was most disappointing was that l was looking forward to visiting this place most in Perth. Kings Park is bloody huge, thats all l have to say about it, and the map is so confusing. Probably just me but l couldnt make out the map at all. Bloody Marty, this was his area of expertise and he had left us to explore alone. So we checked out the big boab tree in the Aboriginal area of the park, cant wait to see these up north, loved them ten years ago when l saw them and will be equally as fascinated to see them again. Anyway, was excited to see the girls get wowed at the boabs just l as was when l first saw them. We then headed back up to the main part of the park because Meg was again whinging. I think the girls were getting a bit tired of the tourist thing also, exploring everyday can be quite tiring. I know, poor us hey! Lol. Anyway, we made our way to the Anzac memorial in the park and was blown away by the efforts they have made to commemorate these fallen heros. They had the burning flame and the poppy flowers surrounding the water feature. The Anzac memorial shrine has the Perth city as the backdrop which was an awesome lookout. The day had taken its toll and the girls were getting tired and sick of the park, and Marty and l fighting too probably, so we headed back to the car where Marty was and we smoothed things over once more. Hopefully we will get to come back to Kings Park in the future and check it out properly, theres meant to be an awesome kids play and adventure/exploration area and l would love to do the walk thru to the other areas. The sad thing about the day was the park breathed positivity and relaxation, and all Marty and l brought to it was anger and angst. In the hour we were there there were families picnicking, lovers romancing, people using the trees as a perch to lean on reading a book and others running and exercising throughout the whole area. Quite a busy place really. Fingers crossed we can revisit with better memories.......
We were running out of time for the day and had a few things left on our list that we wanted to check out. We headed to the Perth Mint, the one place Marty wanted to visit. The Mint itself is quite prestigious and grand looking building in a quiet part of Perth CBD. Walking up to the entrance l felt like l should be dressed in a 1900 century dress side saddling a horse. We took the tour option and were a little late but they let us join the tour that had just started. The tour was very informative but the best part was seeing the gold be melted down into a gold block. Boo and Meg were fascinated and the heat off the smelter was intense, caused small sweat buds on the forehead thats for sure. We decided to get a gold coin designed and made for us. The guy was eager to create something fascinating once he found out our story with travelling around Australia. Girls had a great time choosing some pictures to go on the design too. We opted for our blog name "Three girls a man and a caravan" with a map of Australia with three girls and a man on the front, and on the back a picture of a car pulling a caravan and the year we started our trip- 2011. Looked pretty cool, and best part is it is one of a kind and something we can look back on that we created on this trip. After the excitement of making our gold coin, we decided we should go out and treat ourselves to some chocolate. We had heard the Swan Valley had some brilliant chocolate shops that made their own on site. We found one, unsure of the name of the place, and were greeted with loads of chocolate buttons for free sampling. Now if anyone knows Marty and l they would know that we have become chocolate freaks. Whilst grabbing a handful of choc buttons we wondered around the shop looking at all the chocolate creations that we had no intention of buying, and when the hand was empty, we simply went over and filled back up. The girls went just as crazy, scoffing as much as their mouths would keep up. The place also made their own hard lollies, liquorice flavored, and we got a demonstration which was cool to watch. Again, we got a free sample, girls werent a fan of it, l didnt mind it, took me back to my childhood. Getting full of chocolate l decided we hadnt had enough junk so an icecream was in order. OMG, it was heaven in a waffle cone!!! As we were all filled up on sugar, it was time to go, but not without getting one last handful of chocolate buttons to go!! The feeling of wanting to puck wasnt going to stop me getting something for free, l am a determined woman who doesnt know when to stop, thats all l can say!! We had jammed so much into one day, we were beat, and it was getting late so we headed back to Narelle and Damo's. Felt a bit bad as we got home just before dinner time, Narelle was preparing Nasi Goreng for us as a sort of commemorative meal from the country were we had met. It was delicious!!! Even had the runny yolked egg on top, totally took me back to Bali. Jackson and Sienna wanted to have Boo and Meg over for a sleep over, so Marty and l were excited for a night off!! Girls were so excited to be sleeping in a "real" bed, even if it was a mattress on the floor. After dinner, we made for an early night, we were beat. And no, we unfortunately didnt make use of our night without the girls in the van, totally knackered! In hindsight, we should have maybe made use of the time...
Next morning we woke to quietness, a beautiful way to start the day. Wasnt long before we were greeted to the normal sounds of our two blessings when we went inside the house. Narelle was off to work this morning so was crazy getting the kids organised for school, felt a bit in the way, so we quickly had breakfast and packed up. Was time to push on to our last stop before really searching for work. We were off to Gingin, a small town an hour or so up the road, where we had mates we had met in Darwin staying on a farm/caravan park. We couldnt wait to see them, again, we are feeling very lucky to have made such good mates around Australia. We said our good-byes to Narelle, Damian, Jackson and Sienna and set off once more. Was great to see them and hope it wont be the last, who knows we might meet them in Bali again one day for a reunion?? The girls had a blast with Jackson and Sienna, riding their scooters up on the road without the worry of getting rocks caught in the wheels. They also loved the break from the van l think, lounging around lying on the floor watching television. Its the simple things, such as space, that you dont realise you miss till you can do it once more.......

Bell Xxx