Freo - There and back again

Today was a day of two halves.

Had a bit of a lie in and didn't leave the hotel until the back of nine. Then it was off to the shops. Stopping off for a little brekkie, I finished writing my Christmas cards and sent them off before scouring the souvenir shops for the last of my prezzies. Almost successful, the rest would wait until I visited the Fremantle markets later in the day.

Bags deposited in the hotel for later distribution through my luggage, I headed off to the station to catch the train out to Fremantle. I missed the shipwrecks gallery when I visited on Tuesday and of course,the markets had been closed. Part of the museum of Western Australia, the shipwrecks gallery, as you might expect, tells the stories of several of the ships that were wrecked off the Western Australian shores. Through written and visual records, models and salvaged artefacts the tales come to life. One of the most famous wrecks is that of the Batavia wrecked on her maiden voyage in 1629. It's not particularly the wreck but more the mutiny among the survivors and massacre of the passenger families, some 110 or so men, women and children at their hands that makes the story of the Batavia infamous. Not long after the wreck was discovered in 1963 the remains of two men in shallow graves were discovered on Beacon Island. It is not known who they were as it was reported that almost all victims of he mutineers were driven into the waters before being murdered and left for the tides to dispose of the remains. The skeletal remains of the man in my extras, estimated to be between 35-39 years old was discovered missing his right foot and with a broken right shoulder blade. A cutting edge wound to the top of his skull is also evident.

After a very interesting couple of hours I wandered down Marine Terrace to the warehouses of East Wes Design where d been told they have the most wonderful artwork displayed on their walls. Typical that I should visit when they are repainting! Only one of the murals was complete. The second was half complete and had scaffold over it (not to mention a car parked in front) and the third panel was half completed with the basic design. Pffft! ;-) Anyway, the completed mural with opened warehouse door is my shot for the day.

On thing I need to lawn to do is use public transport more to get around places, especially when it's free! I somehow feel though that I might miss something and prefer to walk. It was another stinker of a 30+ day though on the west coast so I took the cat back up to town and wandered along to the markets. Inside... Cool... Ahhhhh! I wandered for a good half hour before deciding on the last few gifts I needed to pick up before heading back to the station (picking up another unintended gift along the way) to head out to Cottesloe for sunset. So intent was I on my book that I totally missed my stop, only noticing three stops down the line. D'Oh! I decided I couldn't be bothered going back (there were very few clouds in the sky - the night before would have been much, much better) and so I just stayed on until Perth (heh, I almost missed that too)! My sadness at missing out on the sunset was almost immediately tempered when I walked across the footbridge out of the station and saw Forrest Place transformed into the Hawkers Twilight Market. Food stalls from all over the world tempted the casual diner and boy was it busy. I did rather well in not visiting the all but the selections I did try were fantastic. I wandered back to the hotel and happy (and full) bunny.

Even managed to back blip a few days before succumbing to sleep at around midnight. A late night this holiday... and my last.