Safe Arrival

Well, I must be jet lagged as I just tried to edit one word at the end of my blog today and whole lot disappeared so will try again, so annoying.  I will now try and remember to save after each paragraph.

We had a really good journey from when we left Colchester on Friday afternoon to arriving in Fremantle at 14.10 today.  We didn’t sleep much Friday night but managed to have long naps on the plane.  We are so pleased we decided to go Premium Economy as it was a sixteen and a half hour direct flight Heathrow to Perth.  We had more leg room, seats were wider and reclined more but when the person reclined their seat fully it didn’t encroach on the person sitting behind even at meal times.  We were at the back of our section of the cabin with no one behind us.  We were the last to be served a welcoming drink and while everyone else had wine, we were given champagne, because we had been left until last, a good start. The food was very tasty and it was also nice to have proper crockery and cutlery and glasses, no plastic.  We even had larger comfy pillows so didn’t need our own neck pillows.  The cabin crew were brilliant and friendly and nothing was too much trouble.

Gavin was at Perth airport waiting for us, I could hardly speak once we had landed until he hugged me as I was so emotional and we both had a few tears.  Baggage reclaim and customs was very quick and efficient and we felt fine after such a long journey and Gavin was surprised.

We booked in to our B &B which is very quirky and I think you would say Bavarian  in style.  We are on the very top floor and there is only our room there.  Poor Gavin had to carry our cases up two flights of winding stairs!

After a partial unpack and quick showers we headed out to try and get an Aussie SIM for my phone but the store was closed so we went to The National bar/hotel instead and had a cool drink in their rooftop bar.  We are staying there for four nights on our return from Esperance next week.  We then went to South Beach to meet Camila for the first time which was again really lovely, it is so nice Gavin and her are still such good friends.  She is kindly lending us her car for our road trip down south to Esperance for the week and also she let Gavin use it to collect us today, she is back to work in Darwin tomorrow so won’t be needing it herself.  She works fly in fly out (FIFO)  like Gavin.  

After Gavin had a quick swim we drove to another bar/brewery called Gage Road. It was very busy and very noisy but we had a drink and a tasty meal and soaked up the atmosphere.  We tried to video call Lisa but it was too noisy so gave up.  

De-icing the plane before take off

First meeting with Camila

It was still 28 degrees at 17.30 but with a lovely breeze called ‘The Fremantle Doctor’ which comes in 

about 16.00 most days.

We are now tucked up in bed with the air conditioning on and hoping to catch up on some sleep.  I will try and put some photos on but may need to use Richard’s laptop tomorrow, so will see how I get on.