Day 30 & 31 ~ Sea Day and Fremantle, Australia

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. ~ Confucius

We had another rocky sea day as we rounded the southwestern corner of Australia and headed north toward Fremantle (AKA Freo to the locals. Aussies dearly love to shorten names!) Don’t let these relatively passive seas we encountered as the Pacific Princess threaded her way through the archipelago of islands around the mouth of Esperance’s harbor fool you.  The ocean is vigorous in this part of the world and becomes more so as it joins with the Indian Ocean. Still we enjoyed our sea day and have started incorporating an afternoon nap into our busy schedule.

I’m over the worst of the cold I picked up, but I’m still not singing much, not the way I’d like to be. My larynx is swollen. I can feel it, and worse, I can hear it when I try to join in for Harmony Choir. Unfortunately, this isn’t unusual for me. Because some of my meds suppress my immune system, it takes longer for me to heal, especially since I did some serious coughing for several days. I should really go on a complete talking fast so I can rest my chords. Once when I was singing professionally, my doc ordered a week of silence for me. It was hard because our girls were little and didn’t understand when I started just making signs to them. (By the end of the week, they were wiggling their little hands back at me and neither of us knew what the other was trying to communicate!) But it did get my voice back on the mend.

The Southern Cross Band greeted us at the pier this morning. It's nice to be welcomed!

Early this morning we slid into the mouth of the Black Swan River and the port of Fremantle, our fifth Australian stop. In each of the places, we only get a taste of the area, but with six Aussie ports in total we at least have a sense of the bigness of the country.

This may look like another cruise ship, but it hauls livestock, not people!

Fremantle is their most important port for goods shipped from China and Singapore and is the jumping off place for Aussie exports too. Right now, one of the more controversial exports is live cattle and sheep on big transports called Ocean Drovers. Imagine a seasick herd crammed into a tight hold and you get an idea why it’s causing a stir, but honestly, how else could livestock be transported?

Downtown Freemantle

We had originally thought we’d go to Yanchep National Park on an all day tour, but when I looked at the tickets closely, I saw that the activity level was marked “strenuous.” Herkimer and I don’t do strenuous, so we cancelled for a refund and walked into town. Even though we go slowly, I managed to log 7000 steps before we returned to the ship for lunch. I’m okay with walking, but if I have to go fast enough to keep up with a group, that’s where I get into trouble.

After a stroll around the historic downtown and some people watching, we caught a Hop-On Hop-Off tram that gave us an hour long tour with commentary for $25 AUS each. Since one of our goals was to use up the last of our Aussie dollars, this worked out well.

This is the Uniting Church—a combination of Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian congregations. There are a number of churches in Australia, but not many church-goers. The people are welcoming and extremely nice, but it’s a fairly secular society.

A big group of school kids were lining up to tour the prison.

Fremantle was originally founded on the premise that there would be no convicts. Everyone would come there of their own free will. But one of the first ships to dock at the new port was transporting—you guessed it!—75 convicts from England. The first thing the poor fellows had to do was build their own prison out of the abundant limestone in the area!

In addition to a maximum security prison, Fremantle was home to a large insane asylum. However, it wasn’t just for mental problems. Any number of things could earn you a bed there. If, for example, you suffered from epilepsy, or alcoholism, or if you gave birth out of wedlock, you could be committed…for life. Like the Hotel California in the old song, you could check out any time you like, but you could never leave! 

This street has been painted with removable yellow stripes in preparation for an upcoming arts festival.

The downtown area is protected as heritage site, so no matter how the interior is updated, the exterior of the buildings need to retain their Edwardian styles.

  

This is the Fremantle train station which offers commuter rail to Perth, a scant 12 miles away.  Perth is the terminus for the Indian-Pacific Line which runs from Sydney 1500 km in the longest stretch of straight rail in the world. 

Tonight we hope to do some stargazing again. The captain will turn off the bridge lights for us at 9pm. Hopefully, the clouds will stay away.

Tomorrow is another sea day and then our last stop in Oz--Exmouth!