Day 49 – Sunday, February 23rd, 2025 – Fremantle (Perth)

The first thing you may notice is that I put Perth in parentheses. That was the intended destination, but it was an hour and 20 minutes from Fremantle. Realistically, we only had about six hours on the ground here. The hour and 20 minutes, times two, ate up too much of that time. We ended up staying just in Fremantle. Somehow Mary got the idea of calling taxi companies to see if they would take us on a tour. She ended up finding a guy who would drive us around in his taxi. They negotiated a price, and we would spend the day with him.

We had breakfast in the room. We got off the ship at about 830. We worked our way down to where the taxis were. And there a big guy, in a turban, came up and introduced himself as Gary. He walked us over to a pretty decent sized van with a lift in the back. He loaded me up, and tied my chair down. Mary had done some research on things she wanted to get accomplished plus we need to do the standard things - T-shirts, with refrigerator magnets, you know the routine. Using Gary’s knowledge, we plotted the general plan.

We drove around Fremantle central area for about 15 minutes. The parts we saw looked like a port town. There were fishing boats, large areas of shipping crates and cranes, etc. We pulled up in front of the WA Maritime Museum. The plan was to go on a tour of the museum at 10:30. We were a little early, so we went in and did some wandering around on our own before 1030. It's a decent sized museum that covers all kinds of maritime topics. There were maritime disasters and maritime successes. There were plenty of boats and things associated with boats. When the tour started, the lady discussed some of her favorite parts. It had fish tanks with some pretty fish. The one display that I found was interesting was there was a guy in a boat that looked to be about 45-foot-long. He used it to carry mail in the early 20th century back and forth through southern Australia. Knowing how rocky the seas were for us, I can only imagine what they would be like in this 45 foot boat. The tour lasted about 45 minutes or so. The lady talked a lot about the history of many of the boats that were there. Overall, it was interesting and we learned some historical facts.

From the museum, we drove to the Fremantle Marketplace. It's a huge area where there are probably hundreds of stalls selling everything. It took a while for Gary to find a parking spot, but when we did Mary and I walked into the marketplace. We wandered around for a while before we found a place for postcards and refrigerator magnets. Somehow, in this huge area, Gary found us. The three of us then tried to find a T-shirt shop. Along the way, Mary found a tea shop where she picked up all kinds of new tea. She says the tea on the ship has gotten boring. Time for something new. In the general area, we found a T-shirt shop. We picked up three T shirts and decided to be on our way. It's one of these places you could have spent all day and seen half of it. It would have been interesting to spend more time, but we knew there were other things we wanted to get accomplished.

Our next stop was the local grocery store. It was called Woolworths. It's not the Woolworths Americans are thinking of - at least those that remember what a Woolworths was. It was a decent sized grocery store. I would say it was about half the size of Publix. (We've only been gone 50 days and neither of us could remember Publix. We had to look it up on the Internet.) Mary had a list of things that she wanted to get. I was on the hunt for Monster and some snacks for the room. Mary's list was more practical. For example, it included soap, razor blades, and band aids. The soap in the shower in the room is not that good. Of course, her list did include some things like cookies. We had to keep in mind that everything we bought had to be brought on to the ship. This means it needed to be carried by Mary and me all the way from the van to the room. Going through things like security can be a pain if you have a lot of packages. Nonetheless, we loaded up. We spent maybe an hour there.

Several people on the ship said that if we go to Fremantle, we have to go to a pub. The beer and fish and chips were supposed to be very good in Fremantle. We didn't actually go to a pub. We ended up at a brewery called Little Creatures. It was a very lively place. We found a table. I don't think I mentioned it before but every place we've been to in New Zealand and Australia use the little QR codes on the table to bring up the menu and ordering. You have to use the camera on your phone which opens up a website where you can order. We've gotten pretty good at this because now this is the third or fourth time we've done it. Unfortunately, there was no fish and chips on the menu. We decided to go with a pizza and French fries. I ordered a beer to come with the pizza. Mary had diet Coke. On the menu, the pizza said it would take 30 minutes. Mary walked over to the bar area and bought me a flight of four beers. It was a set card. I took a picture of the card. Separately, she brought me a little glass of XPA, which was supposed to be their double IPA. My separate beer, Mary's coke and the French fries came right away. The pizza did not take 30 minutes. The French fries were good. Not as good as the ones we had in Melbourne, but they were good. The pizza was really good too. I think it had to do with the sausage that was used. It was very spicy. It was nice and warm because it was wood fired. From the beers, of the five I would say there were two that were good – The XPA and the Pacific Ale. If we had more time, I would have had a glass or two more of either of these. Unfortunately, the clock was ticking. While we were sitting there, there was a dancing show that went up and down the aisles. There was a band playing at the one end. I wanted a four pack of the Pacific ale. I had to make sure Mary could fit it into her growing stack of packages that we need to get back onto the ship. She said we could do it so I bought them. As I mentioned, it was a very lively place. I could easily see hanging out there for an afternoon. Maybe the next time I'm in Fremantle…

Because of the clock and it being a Sunday, we made a half hearted attempt to mail the postcards. Finally, Gary offered to send them for us. Mary gave him the cards after she had filled them out and some money to send them. We later received a text showing that he did send them. All objectives were met.

On the way back to the ship, we drove by the Fremantle prison. Mary wanted to go inside initially, but the clock did not allow that. As it was, we were still about 20 minutes or so away from the ship. The ship was going to leave at 5:30 and it was already after 4:00. We probably had time, but we did not want to push the envelope. We made it back to the ship. We took the pictures and said our goodbyes. Gary was a good guy. He made the trip enjoyable.

Back on the ship, we took the time lapse of the ship leaving. I've included it below. We stayed in the room. We were both pretty tired. It was another successful day.