Land again and the ship docked for a 1½ day stay in Fremantle. It was a welcome break for the crew who could get off the ship for a few hours in between their duties on board. Some went shopping, others took the opportunity to find free WIFI contact loved ones back home, and yet others did a bit of sightseeing.
As soon as the ship was cleared and busses ready, guests headed out on their tours. It was not long before my assigned tour group was on its way. Well, ‘on its way’ was a bit of an understatement! The bus transferred us to the Swan River Cruise landing just a few minutes away – possibly a 10 minute walk at the most. By the time the bus was loaded, the driver had driven us to the river boat cruise jetty, our guide picked up our tickets and we got off to get on the boat – we could have walked to and boarded the boat within less time than it took for the transfer. Ooops.
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| A view of Perth from the river boat |
My tour group was not the only group on the river cruise. Another 2 or 3 busses arrived with guests. And there were also members of the public on the boat too. One young couple didn’t seem very pleased with the sudden ‘invasion’ of tourists and decided to disembark just before the boat left, either getting their money back or waiting for the next river boat cruise.
Our journey up the river was interesting with the captain telling those on board about the history of Perth and pointing out some interesting sights.
We eventually arrived at the cruise jetty in Perth and disembarked, finding our guide and bus. We were almost ready to go when it was discovered that we were missing a guest. The bus was blocking the road so the guide got off to look for the guest while the bus driver took us around the block. By the time we got back to the bus’s starting point the guest had been found – he had wandered off to take a photograph, not realising he was delaying the tour.
The next part of the tour was a brief sightseeing drive through Perth with our guide pointing out various sights of interest, such as Kings Park and botanical gardens, historic buildings, etc.
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| This koala is soooo tired ... |
We eventually arrived at Caversham Wildlife Park and had a guided tour rather than a DIY tour. Being a guided tour was understandable, taking guests to the main sections of the park in order to see wallabies, kangaroos, dingoes, emu, koalas, a wombat and a variety of birds. Some guests decided that they wanted to see as much of the wildlife park as they could so wandered off to explore at a much faster pace. On the whole the visit was lovely. Guests got photographs of themselves stroking a koala, a wombat, a snake (if brave enough!); and had a great time feeding the friendly kangaroos. The highlight of feeding the kangaroos was seeing a joey peering out of mum’s pouch to see what all the fuss was.
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| Hey mum, what's out there? |
Our poor guide I think was a bit stressed and lost the plot a bit, so to speak. He did his head count of the guests a couple of times and something didn’t seem right. Both he and the driver did a head count two more times but the guide still was not happy. Someone was missing. He dashed off to the gift shop to see if a guest was still at the shop. In the meantime I went to speak to the driver to find out what was up (yes of course it seemed a guest was missing but it was polite to ask or to see if I could help). It turned out that just after the guide had gone in search of the missing guest – it dawned on our driver that all the guests were present and correct BUT the guide had forgot to count himself in with the total number of occupied seats! Ooops. The poor chap came back in a bit of a sweat and the driver soon put his mind at rest. Without more ado we hit the road.
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| Park ranger holding a wombat. She is so lazy and loves cuddles & food! |
The drive back to the ship was uneventful however guests asked our guide if we could have a quick whizz through Fremantle before heading back to the ship in order to get an idea of the town. The suggestion was put to the guests but I started to panic a bit. I was due to meet up with friends for dinner within the next 15/20 minutes and didn’t want to be back at the ship too late. I still had to wash and get dressed as well as complete a tour escort report. But as the guests had requested the brief detour, I had no say in the matter. The bus driver took us along past a historic Victorian marketplace, into the harbour and a marina and then out again, passing the Shipwrecks Museum, the Roundhouse (a former 19th century prison) and the Western Australia Maritime Museum before arriving back at the ship. It wasn’t too much of a detour and I was relieved that we arrived back at the ship only 2 or 3 minutes late.
For me it was all systems go once I was on the ship. A table for dinner had been booked for 7pm (but it didn’t matter if we were late because the Canaletto Restaurant on board was not fully booked due to the overnight stay in Fremantle) and I was expecting friends to arrive on board the ship at around 6:45pm, giving me – by then - 10 minutes to wash, change and do my report. The report took a bit longer than expected and I had only just finished it when Paul got a call from security to advise that my friends had arrived. Nice timing!
It was good to see Ian again (a schoolmate I had not seen since finishing high school!), his wife and son. Needless to say, we had a truly lovely evening in their company. After dinner Paul kindly took us around the ship, going to places that guests usually don’t get to see – anchor room, ice cream and ice block room, laundry, kitchens, etc. including the engine room for which he got permission beforehand from the head engineer. Time passed by waaay too quickly and unfortunately Ian, Cindy and Ruben had to head back home. All in all it has been a lovely evening.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Swan River cruise
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| Ironwork kangaroos 'going to work' with their briefcases. |
Caversham Wildlife Park
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| Dingoes |
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| This koala is only a year old - very small. |
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| Mum and her joey |
Land again and the ship docked for a 1½ day stay in Fremantle. It was a welcome break for the crew who could get off the ship for a few hours in between their duties on board. Some went shopping, others took the opportunity to find free WIFI contact loved ones back home, and yet others did a bit of sightseeing. 
As soon as the ship was cleared and busses ready, guests headed out on their tours. It was not long before my assigned tour group was on its way. Well, ‘on its way’ was a bit of an understatement! The bus transferred us to the Swan River Cruise landing just a few minutes away – possibly a 10 minute walk at the most. By the time the bus was loaded, the driver had driven us to the river boat cruise jetty, our guide picked up our tickets and we got off to get on the boat – we could have walked to and boarded the boat within less time than it took for the transfer. Ooops.
We eventually arrived at the cruise jetty in Perth and disembarked, finding our guide and bus. We were almost ready to go when it was discovered that we were missing a guest. The bus was blocking the road so the guide got off to look for the guest while the bus driver took us around the block. By the time we got back to the bus’s starting point the guest had been found – he had wandered off to take a photograph, not realising he was delaying the tour.
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