If you aren't familiar with the map of Australia, I'm now in Perth,
the West Coast, it took a 6 hour plane (yup Australia is huge)
from Brisbane but I made it.
I spent my first few nights in Costoloe beach, it's a very
family orientated area and very beautiful. For example, I went for a walk
on a Monday evening around 6:30/7pm to watch the sunset and as I
did it hit me how different the lifestyle is in Australia, there were
families with their babies, children, teenagers on the beach, swimming
and just enjoying the sunset. The beach was full at 7pm on a Monday evening,
and when you compare that to home, everyone would be inside, most
likely sitting in front of the TV ready to watch tonight's episode of
Eastenders. There is such a big difference in culture and I love it,
I love Perth.
Shortly after I moved to Fremantle, it's just half an hour East (I think,
geography is not my strong point, this is where I need Erin) of Costoloe.
Here I met Isabella, she's Norwegian and I've spent all my time in Fremantle
with her, we've been typical tourists really, we went
to Fremantle Prison, shopping, museums, we went on bike rides,
spent days at the beach, we even spent one evening on a beach around a
camp fire which was very Australian and lots of fun.
 |
| Fremantle Prison |
The guy who lived in this cell in Fremantle Prison was called
Peg Leg Pete, he was in prison for abusing women and children,
he had anger problems and the only way to calm him down was to let him
paint and so his prison cell is full of the most beautiful and detailed paintings.
Fremantle has a lot of stories of the many shipwrecks that
happened here over the years, when we went to the
Shipwreck museum I learnt so much about the History and this one
story I read was my favourite..
*que story time*
The ship 'Stefano' set sail from Austria in 1875, it hit Ningaloo reef
and in the heavy sea the ship was quickly destroyed. The Captain who was
the eldest of 25 drowned alone with most of the crew except 10 survivors.
The survivors reached shore with no food or water, they began to look
for any washed up supplies and soon found some barrels of water,
A few days later a small group of Aborigines from the Payungu Tribe came
to their camp bringing a chart which has been washed down steam from the wreck.
A week later they were suffering very low on supplies and so decided to split
up into two groups, one party found the Aboriginal camp who gave shelter,
food and water to them, the rest of the survivors later met up with the other group
and they decided to continue south into the increasingly inhospitable country.
In December a huge cyclone hit the coast and due to having
no shelter they felt the full force, only 2 boys survived, 16 and 19 year
old boys who later turned to cannibalism of one of their dead
shipmates as a way to stay alive. They decided to turn back and
look for the Aborigines who had twice helped them before, they started
to head inland and were lucky enough to find them, they stayed with them
for 3 months and were nursed back to health. The Aborigines knew of a ship
that often landed onshore up north and so that's where the Austrians
headed. As soon as the ship landed they picked up the boys and took
them to Fremantle where they stayed for a few months, they later arrived home
and became celebrities. The Aborigines were given blankets and food
as a thank you for their hospitality.
I LOVE learning about stories and the history of Ausralia and so
yesterday I went to the Island in which is very famous for all it's shipwrecks.
Rottnest Island, it's just a 20 minutes ferry from Fremantle
and it had the most beautiful beaches and reefs I've ever seen.
On the Island there is these little animals called,
Quokka's, so the easiest way to describe a Quokka is
a little kangaroo/guinea pig/squirrel, they are only native
to Rottnest as they died out mainland due to the foxes and snakes.
They're super cute and always look like they're smiling so as soon
as I arrived on the island I met and stroked a few of those.
I also met two girls there, one Aussie and one Scottish, they knew
the island well and so we went on a 25K bike ride around Rottnest
(my bum is still in pain). Coming from the fens I particularly
struggled because I was not used to
all those steep hills! As Rottnest is known
for all of the shipwrecks that have occurred there
we went snorkelling and saw some of the most beautiful
fish and reefs! I had the best day and
now my time in Perth is almost over. I move to Perth CBD in
two days where I will stay for just a day and then I begin my journey
to Thailand.
I'm excited to start my next part of the trip, especially to see
Erin and Megan, but it'll of course be sad to say goodbye
to Australia, however, there is a saying I learnt from
someone in camp, it's not goodbye, it's just see you soon.
So, see you soon Australia,
Lots of love
Robyn
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment