Freemantle and Margaret River

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As most people know I spent some of my child growing up in Perth. So I was really looking forward to going back and seeing the place. Through efforts of my mum she managed to track down and old friend of hers who had a daughter called Emma. I ended up with her email address and got in-touch. I hadn't seen Emma for about 21 years but I did remember her, or the idea of her from our time in Kindergarten.

I thought it would be good to for us to meet up, but Emma opened up her house to Mairead and I for the whole week. She was absolutely amazing. She fed us, drove us around, and became a tour guide full of information about places to go. When we went to Margaret River camping for 3 days she even went to the trouble of packing us a hamper. We'd just like to say a massive thanks for Emma and Bens hospitality and helping us so much. It was truly amazing.

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Another old group of friends that Mairead and I managed to catch up with were Una, Pete, Clare, Julie, Brian and Sue. All with Scunthorpe connections. We were invited around for a good old Aussie Barbecue. Pete did the meat and Una made the most amazing dessert. We felt guilty to eat the picture perfect desert, but we soon got over it, and Brian and Sue kept the beer and wine coming. Una and Pete are originally from Scunthorpe but lived in Perth at the same time as we did 20 years ago. Brian and Sue still live in Scunthorpe on Queenswood Road, where I moved back to after Perth. It was great to catch up with them all. I couldn't believe we were thousands of miles away from home and everyone had a Scunthorpe accent. It was a really lovely evening and big thanks to Una and Pete for having us over.

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Anyway getting on to our time in Freemantle, which is just outside Perth. It was a lovely town and we spent a few days milling around, sitting in Cafe's and just having a nice time. One morning Emma dropped us at a place called Hilary's Harbour which had an aquarium. There was a huge underwater tube that you walked around and all the sharks, turtles and stingrays would glide over you eyeing you up.

Just south of Perth is a place called Margaret river, which is famous for wine. Mairead didn't need much persuasion to go! We hired a car, an automatic, which took a bit of getting used to. We stopped off at an amazing seaside resort called Bussleton and had a 4km walk along the pier. When we got there and decided to camp. Recalling the misery of camping in Fraser Island with the "Rain Makers" aka Emily and Katie, and personally recalling Maireads cooking I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a most enjoyable experience. We had our own tent that didn't leak, the weather was good and Mairead did a sterling effort with the food. I just did man things like making sure the tent was correctly in place and the car wash bottle had enough water.

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We joined a tour which went around the wineries and you tasted what they had on offer. It was called the Bush Tucker tour, which we didn't think much of to begin with. Well at 11am we got on a small tour bus and headed off to the first of many vineyards. At every winery we tasted 6 wines, 3 white, 3 red. We all know how Mairead loves the odd glass, and with me in tow we took to the task. By midday we were half cut. The tour totaled 5 wineries, a cheese factory, a chocolate factory and a lunch. At the 3rd winery we all sat down for the prepared lunch. We all had on our plate a selection of "bush tucker" and a slice of bread. I lifted up my bread to find the token Widgerie Grub. Fantastic I thought. I took some building up to, but down it went and thankfully it stayed down. I was kind of like a large cold prawn, but tasted like a large cold turd. Most of it ended up stuck around my molars in the back off my mouth. Nothing left for it but to swill it down with more wine.

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We left Margaret river after three days, so we had on day left in Perth, just enough time for me to sit outside a selection of womens shops around the shopping center in Perth, whilst Mairead tried to persuade me that "they don't have the same stuff in England". At the end of that shopathon we went to the Freemantle prison for the last tour of the day. It was a fascinating place and we had a tour of the gallows. The guide told us a few Saddam jokes, that were met with silence from the small crowd of people with him.

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So that was Perth. I managed to get to see where I grew up, eat a widgery grub, see where they hung murderers up until a year or so ago (I didn't pay much attention) and meet up with some really nice people. If they are ever over in London it our house is open to them, but if they'd like to stay somewhere nice, then we can always just meet for drinks and a meal.

Onto Melbourne....