6. Day 4: Perth Again

6.1. Fremantle

Perth From Kings Park

After the rainy conditions on the previous day, day 4 dawned rather miserable. It wasn't exactly pouring rain, but generally drizzly. I started the day by heading up to Kings Park to look over the city, and here's a picture to prove it.

There was also a wildflower festival on in the park but it wasn't open at the time I was there. It also looked like you needed to be a bit more of a flower connoisseur than what I am in order to appreciate it. To, there was little more than what I'd already seen in the wild. Even though the weather was miserable, I had a look around the park, and climbed the observation tower. Apart from the rain and cloud, there wasn't a lot to observe though.

High St.

After leaving Kings Park, I filled up with city priced petrol, and drove on down to Fremantle. I'd already been to Fremantle twice, once on this trip and once on the previous, but it had been in the evening both times. This time I had the opportunity to walk around the streets in the early morning. As you can see from the photo, there weren't many people around at that time. It's hard to take a picture that fully captures the feel of Fremantle, but it has a historic and cultural atmosphere.

At the end of High Street, where this photo was taken, there is the Round House built on the top of a small hill. This is apparently the oldest building still standing in Fremantle, and was the original prison. It was as a whaling station in the 19th century.

6.2. Perth South

Kwinana Ship Loader

Heading South, I came across this bright blue ship loader in Kwinana. It was really quite a striking sight. By this time, the wet weather was starting to clear, and the blue sky and sun appearing. That was good to see, because coastal scenery tends to look nicer in the sun, and there weren't the rugged cliffs of Kalbarri to make it an atmospheric thing.

Dogs were permitted on the beach at that spot, so while I was there at the park having lunch, there were a number of people coming and going with their dogs.

Rockingham

This picture is from the beach at Rockingham. This area of Rockingham struck me as being a rather nice place. It was sort of the quiet-yet-busy seaside village. Being peaceful and sunny was a pleasant change from the recent wind and rain as well.

It was here that I ran out of film, and procured more in a shopping expedition at the local shopping centre. As it turns out, I should have bought more, but I wasn't to know that at the time. I was also looking for some sort of brush to clean the dirt out from inside the doors of the car, but didn't see anything suitable.

After the trip to the shopping centre, it was then back out into the sun, and onto the road to see the sights.

Rockingham from Cape Peron

This picture is a panaroma made up from three separate photos. I didn't want to spend a lot of time with it, so with a bit of care you can see the effects of the joins. For those interested, I warped the photos to approximate a cylindrical projection. The full-size image is most likely wider than your monitor, so you would have to scroll to see it all.

This was taken from Cape Peron, just out of Rockingham. It is looking inland, with Kwinana on the far left, then Rockingham and the ocean southward off to the right. It was quite a nice view from that spot, the sun on clear peacful water was a pleasant change.

Heading south from here, I came to Mandurah. This is a similar town to Rockinham in many ways, but get the nice feeling I did out of Rockingham. That might have been partly caused by an increase in cloud cover at that time.

Yalgorup NP.

Right through this Southern area, I noticed that a lot of new tract subdivisions were being opened. These seemed to be quite isolated, but being filled with big new houses. I noticed that there were a number of canal developments. That's for those who like to sail their boat into the back yard to join the mosquitoes.

Continuing South, this picture was from the road out to Preston Beach, in Yalgorup National Park. I was more impressed with the desolate air to this bit of coastal dune area than anything else, but this picture ended up quite striking. I found that there were a lot more roads in the South than the North, and it wasn't possible in the time to explore all the places I might have liked to have tried.

Bunbury

By around 5:30 I arrived in Bunbury. I arrived at the hostel only to find the place deserted, and that they had moved to another location. That wasn't a problem, and I soon found I had a place to stay. It turned out that I was the only person in the six-person dorm that night.

After checking-in I went out to buy some milk, and the went up to the nearby lookout to see the sunset. There was a lookout tower built near the lighthouse, and this picture was taken from there over the town of Bunbury.

Bunbury Lighthouse

This final picture is of the sun setting over the Indian Ocean. That chequer-board look to the lighthouse makes it look rather interesting at any time, but particularly in those light conditions.

With that end to the day, it was then time to get some sleep for the next excursion to the South.

→ Next... Day 5: Augusta