Lazy Freo Weekend

It was a humid and cloudy morning on Saturday and after we had eaten breakfast on the Cappacino Strip we decided to walk and find where the house we are renting from Monday is.  It was about a 15 minute stroll and is in a quiet part of Fremantle and it is not far from where Gavin lives.  On the way back I was very thirsty so we popped in to a local coffee shop for a smoothie, strawberry/pineapple and mango, yum.

Gavin and Camila finished their dives just after midday and we met up at Little Creatures as they were very hungry after diving.  Camila looked tired and they both said it was good but a lot to learn.  The visibility was poor and that didn’t help them.  After lunch they went off to find an air conditioning unit for Camila’s room in her house as she said it was very hot without any and we came back to the hotel for a nap. The hot humid weather wiped us both out.

Richard watched the news and we were surprised and horrified to hear a teenage girl had been attacked by a shark in the Swan River in North Fremantle and died of her injuries.  It is not far from here and apparently she and friends were her jet skiing and she saw a pod of dolphins and got in to the water to swim with them, they think a bull shark got her.  Only the second shark attack since the 1960’s.  Our thoughts go out to her friends and family.  Made my jellyfish sting rather insignificant.

We walked to the Italian Restaurant we went to for my birthday and this time were able to have an outside table as the evening was lovely and warm.  We people watched which is a great pastime.  On the way back I treated myself to another Hokey Pokey ice cream.  The bar at the hotel had a different band playing but not as good as the night before.  The crowd dancing were also not so nice, a few guys being silly and spilling beer over the floor so we came up to our room. The noise didn’t affect us getting to sleep.

Sunday

We went back to Gino’s on The Cappuccino Strip for breakfast again this morning and watched the world go by.  The motorbikes in the photo were parked next to the restaurant.  Two old guys drove off and the red bike was really noisy and the black almost silent.  

Richard’s breakfast

It was then time to do a little shopping, I bought another pair of casual trousers from my favourite store in Fremantle. We popped back to the Fremantle Market where I bough some beautiful native flowers to take as a thank you to Camila for lunch tomorrow. We then decided to go to the harbour and wait to see Gavin and Camila return from their diving. We had a look around the C Shed Market there and then got a nice shaded table in Gage Roads brewery so we could see them come in.  They text when they were near and we saw them but they missed us.  The both passed their PADI and Gavin is keen to dive again soon.  We talked about the shark attack and he said one of the first things he was told when he moved to Fremantle was never swim in the Swan River.  The poor girl was so unlucky to have been attacked.

Can just see Gavin at back of the boat 

Camila drove home as she was exhausted and Gavin joined us for a chat about the dive, he was so excited as they saw lots of fish and a manta ray, apparently it is famous and they call it Roger!  We walked back to The National Hotel and the downstairs bar was quite noisy so we came up to the first floor bar balcony, directly under our room.  One of the bar staff came out for a bit of peace and quiet as a lot of The Perth Scorchers cricket team were in the bar.  We now realise why it was so noisy as they won The Big Bash one day cricket league final yesterday.  If it wasn’t for Gavin diving, he and Richard would have gone to see the final.  I must explain that Richard always follows The Perth Scorchers from the UK so he in particular was very excited to see them.  He went and chatted to some of the players he recognised and only just came up to their shoulders!  They were so friendly and chatty.  On the way out to say goodbye to Gavin who was going home we popped into the bar again and Richard asked one of the players if he could have a photo with him.  Their manager was there and took some of the photos for us, again a really friendly nice guy.

Sneaky photo from afar!

 

We decided to have dinner in the hotel as it is our last night here and afterwards we went to the bar to listen yet again to live music.  Good two piece band and nice crowd in and a few folks dancing.  We are packed yet again for our last move this trip to our Airbnb house.  Feel a little unsure about it but at least it seems in a quiet area and we can’t change it now, hopefully it will be fine.  We have not met the owner but have messaged her a few times and from these I don’t get a good impression but time will tell.  The hotel is much more friendly and hopefully we can get a late checkout and collect our stuff once we have or hire car which we collect tomorrow morning.  We are looking forward to lunch with Camila and Gavin and meeting their friends Alison and David who took care of Camila when she first arrived in WA.