Feb. 25

2-25: Yesterday we were in Perth which is the capital of Western Australia. Western Australia is 3 times the size of Texas and has a population of about 2 million, 2/3 of whom live in the Freemantle-Perth metroplex. And over a third of that population is under 24! Freemantle is the port city for Perth which is about 11 miles inland. So once you get out of the city there is nothing but wide open spaces which they call the bush. Once again we found Australia fantastic - a beautiful place. Our tour took us by bus into Perth - we stopped at a large park that contained their was memorial and overlooked the city of Perth and the Swan River. I’ve included a picture of Aussie school girls who were obviously participating in an art class - they were all drawing the city. Then we drove through the business district and down to the river where we caught a boat to take us back to Freemantle. The boat ride was great. We saw some dolphins. The boat driver tried to get them to play in the wake but they did not cooperate. All along the river there were huge homes - there are the ultra-rich everywhere. One house, which was huge and garish, was the summer home of some businessman from Singapore! Ginnie and I sampled a local - really local we passed the brewery - beer called Swan Draught and decided it was the best so far. Once back into the Freemantle port we boarded the bus again for a short tour of Freemantle which is also a very nice town. Really a great place - miles and miles of coastline that has very little built on it. Many green parks throughout the cities. Beautiful and uncrowned. Australia gets our vote as one of the greatest places on earth. After we got back to the boat we took a nice nap. The time changes are taking there toll - the 3 nights between Adelaide and Perth we turned our clocks back each night - half an hour once and then an hour twice! Today is a sea day and tomorrow is Exmouth - a town of 2400 people.