Fremantle

Do I need to even say that our day began with us looking for a coffee ? Seems to be the every day start to my day and my blog posts . When we got down to the lobby the fella that checked us in late last night was just about to finish his shift and saw us and I’m sure he was surprised to see us but flipping the clock around has these effects on people when travelling . Remember we came from Dunedin the day before which is 5 hours ahead so when we got to the hotel it was around 11 pm Perth time but roughly 4 am Dunedin time which we were used to and now had to adjust to our new clock . When we went searching for coffee it was around 7 am here but again it was like we slept in after a late night except it wasn’t mid day here . We found a place next to our hotel called The Drip House which was alright but nothing to write home about and Kathleen is not impressed with what they call a large coffee . We went down the road to another shop called Soul Origin that had breakfast sandwiches and coffee deals where we grabbed some more java and a bite to eat then I headed to Miss Maud to grab a danish as I’m having a craving for some sweet pastries and we creeped back into our hotel with our stash of food to gobble in our room while planning our attack for the day . We are heading to Freemantle to spend a night in a haunted prison . 

By the time we got back to the hotel the shift change had occurred and a nice woman gladly helped us figure out how to catch a train to Fremantle and gave us some good pointers . If you ever visit here and take transit ... it goes by how far you travel so to travel to Fremantle from the CBD is something like $7 and there is a family pass which you can purchase after 9 am which is about $12.40 which gets you 2 adult passes and even passes for two children and it’s unlimited for the day which is a bargain even if you are just heading to Fremantle like we are . It was easy to find and we found out about the 9 am thing the hard way as we arrived at the station around 8:50 am and were told this by the super friendly transit staff . We wandered around and killed 10 minutes and hopped on the 45 minute train ride and got to Fremantle . We made a huge mistake by going to vsisit the visitor center , now the mistake was taking the advice of the person we spoke to and it’s usually a good idea to go but on this day the advice was all wrong ! You see our plan was to drop our bags at the YHA Fremantle Prison and head to the ferry to go to Rottnest Island for the day .... we were advised not to go because of high winds ? What high winds ? It was sunny , nice and there was a light breeze . Well we took the advice went to our hostel and instead of heading to Rottnest we instead took a tour of the prison which we found out had a long history of ghastly shit occurring which isn’t surprising considering it was a place where evil people were kept and also executed 😬

Highlight of the tour was visiting the gallows ! Took as many pics as I could in hopes of finding some orbs or distortions of figures in background but no luck and no ghostly encounters . Dang ! Now we didn’t take just one tour but took two tours as one tour had the gallows included and the other tour was more a narrative of the horrors that happened behind these walls which was way more graphic and not for children . Now if you ask me I’m not sure any of these tours are suitable for children . The first thing we were told about on the first tour was how prisoners were strip searched ... I bet mommy will love explaining that one to her 6 year old wondering what can be stuck in their bum ? Whatever ... #notmyproblem . While we were on tour we found out we are staying in the old woman’s wing and there was one woman in the 150 + year history of this institution where a woman was executed . Her name was Martha Rendell and she was hung for murdering 3 of her children and it just so happens her cell is the room where we are showering 😜 cool eh ! Hopefully her ghost gets a good peek at my bits in the morning hahaha . The two tours combined had us wandering the halls and cells of the prisons for over two and a half hours and Kathleen was a bit cranky as she noticed the weather was nice and really ... why weren’t we on Rotnest Island ? We went to our prison cell for the night and got our shit together and started making our way to the ferry . We made a mistake by stopping to eat because we killed the time that we could have caught the 2:30 pm ferry and that would have given us time to rent bikes and see the whole island comfortably but we didn’t know this .... 

Got to the ferry and spoke to a woman at the booking desk and she said the next ferry was 4:40 pm and gets us to the island by 5:10 pm and we have until 8 pm to catch the last ferry and the price for that is $39 each for the ferry which is much cheaper then what it costs in the morning which was over $65 . How insane is that ? These prices are criminal and these people should be sleeping in the cells we are in ! Anyways it’s a must do and Kathleen will fucking kill me if we don’t do this and our alternative is to either go in the morning before we leave Fremantle and pay more or c9me back to Fremantle and do this on a day I have hockey and still pay more except the weather forecast is for even windier and rainier days 🤨 and the big kicker in all this is that those reduced rates begin at 2:30 pm which is a bargain and the bigger kick in the ass for us right now is that the bike rental places all close at 5 pm . Stuck between a rock and a hard place , we sat down and conversed over this and planned out how to do this and the only solution we had was to go and hike it to this Pink Lake which should be a 45 minute walk and then hike back and head back to Fremantle . All the other options were bleak in comparison as we are not planning to come back to Fremantle to spend double on a ticket to go ride bikes in high winds and rain . This is our last ditch effort to do this so we bought the tickets and wandered around the ferry docks and saw a submarine and a couple drunk dudes trying to bum cigarettes while speaking some drunken Aussie jibberish . Along the wander we came across a statue commemorating all the brave young Maltese people that came to Australia to settle ? Very interesting to see something so random but this won’t be the only strikingly random occurrence for me in Fremantle . When we got on the ferry we were offered a free beer which made everything better when it came to thinking of the cost of this trip 👍 and it eased my mind as I hate being on boats . 

As we crossed the Indian Ocean the water was really rough and all I thought about is how fast I would die if the boat were to capsize ... I would firstly freeze to death in the water and there is no way I would be able to swim to either shore and if that was not any helpful I would more then likely become shark food . Yes I hate being on the water ... unless it’s frozen . When we arrived we could see the bike rental places locking up and the reality of hiking to this pink lake was coming to fruition . The highlight of this visit was seeing the amazing little Quokka’s , they are little marsupials that look like a cross between a kangaroo , rat and rabbit . And they only live on this island and I think another island on the whole planet . Amazingly friendly little things that are very docile and not afraid of humans at all . I was so amazed by them but the task at hand was to make this hike see the lake take a picture and turn back . It got windy ....fast ! Now this is one of those moments in my life where I was not sure if I made the right decision . As we were hiking the last couple bicyclists drove by us frantically heading back for cover and there we were walking into the storm with T-shirt and shorts on and it was so windy I had to hold my hat instead of wearing it on my head . I could only imagine those cyclists thinking wtf is wrong with these two people and one even warned us to turn back . We ignored the warning and kept going as we were getting more and more scared that the sky might open up and piss rain on us with the sun disappearing we would be stuck wandering in the dark alone on an island we have never been on . Kinda crazy to think we were close to having this happen to us but thankfully it didn’t . Oh we got to see that pink lake ... it wasn’t pink 🤨 apparently the sun needs to be shining a different way or some bullshit . On our hike we passed that crazy scary looking graveyard .... 13 people buried there and most of them were children and the graves were all from the 1800’s .... very very creepy . Good thing we didn’t end up being 14 & 15 . 

When we got back to the ferry dock we had some time to kill so we headed to this restaurant/bar there called Thomsons Rottnest where I had a couple Little Creatures IPA’s which were good and Kathleen had a gin and tonic with pomegranate garnishing which was very good . When our ferry arrived we boarde and with a happy buzz going we enjoyed the very bumpy ride back to Fremantle where it was cold , windy and raining ... what a mess ! We already had planned to go to the Little Creatures  brewpub and grab us some grub so we hiked it over to grab some dinner before heading back to our prison cell ....I’m not joking we really did stay in a prison cell ! Anyways when we finally made it to the brewpub we ordered some oysters which were ok but nothing special and then split a pizza which was actually quite good .... the place was pretty packed when we got there and it’s huge inside but by the time we were leaving the crowd had dispersed . Definitely was well worth visiting this place but now we have to brave the cold , wet and very windy weather . 

Hopefully we will experience some paranormal activity tonight ! The guy at the front desk said some people leave early .... I don’t think we will but who knows ? I guess you will all find out when I write my next post . Muah ah ah !