Day 2 - Perth-Fremantle River Cruise

Day 2 of going out with Uncle Meng really has been fun! Went for a River Cruise from Barrack Street Jetty, Perth to O’Connor Landing in Fremantle. Went to the Fremantle Motor Museum where they had really funky cars and motorcycles. Managed to sit in one of them tiny cars, don’t have the picture but can get it off my uncle later.

*WARNING: HEAVY PHOTO POST*

First up was the cruise from Barrack Street Jetty in Perth. The Barrack Street Jetty is situated on Barrack Street, which is a stone’s throw from the city centre. You can either walk there from the city or take a Blue Cat bus which runs every 15 minutes and is free of charge.

A few pictures of the jetty itself and the Swan Bells which is directly in front of the jetty.

*Hover your mouse over the pictures for captions*

We arrived at Fremantle and we had no idea where to go and just went straight for the Fremantle Motor Museum. They had all kinds of antique cars and motorcycles that still function, so it really was a good trip. Tip: Go to the Maritime Museum first and then go to the Motor Museum, they have discounts on the tickets =P

Went off to Cicerello’s for lunch *burp* Chilli Mussels and fish and chips were divine!!

Off to the Western Australian Maritime Museum next. Went on the submarine tour of the HMAS Ovens, which is a Collins class submarine that has been decommisioned and opened up as a display for public. The tour took one hour and if you get a combined ticket to enter the museum and do the sub tour, it costs considerably less. The Museum itself is wonderful with all the interactive buttons and push things.

Inside it was a little claustrophobic, as the width of the sub was basically roughly 2-3 metres at the widest bit and roughly 50 cms at galley ways. Not really for the faint hearted this one.

Below the bunks under the floor were the submarine’s batteries.

Each side of the wall had 3 tiers of bunks, so basically if you were tall, you’d still have to squeeze into the bunks and learn how to sleep with your legs bent double.

Apparently that particular bottom bunk is the worst bunk on the ship and the most junior person on the ship would be given that bunk. Reason is that the hatch on the floor, leads to the bottom of the sub which is where the batteries are located. The electricians will constantly be going in and out and in and out and causing a huge din that it is almost impossible to sleep with that. On top of that, if the electricians decide to lock the door open, there would be no way for the poor sailor to come out of his bunk at all. So all junior sailors keep praying that nobody would do that and that some newer junior would come on board the ship so that they can have that dreaded bunk

Apparently they would store 57 kegs of beer here if stacked carefully and that’s why the lock was put into place

When they need to be rescued, the don these pressure suits and blast through the escape hatch to safety. Only bad thing about these suits is that on their way up, the sailors need to exhale air, or else their lungs will explode when they reach the surface and the pressure difference is great.

We passed the engine room and control room. One of the traditions is that the engines get named and you cannot call the engine anything but the given name or else the enginemen would get upset. Also the engine room can heat up to 50-60 degrees Celcius and people have been known to faint in there from the conditions.

We got out of the submarine and went back into the Museum where there were quite a few surprises there.

The following 3 photos are in this ingenius display whereby when you walk past the thing, the image ‘talks’ to you as if you were back in the 15th century, walking about the markets. Here, they explain the trade over time and is quite an interactive unit with 2 characters ‘talking’ to each other and you.

There were much, much more things to see and do there, but we could only manage that much after such a long walk and such a heavy lunch. We toured the Museum much more in depth, but unfortunately my camera battery died, so I couldn’t take any more photos.

After such a long day, dinner was beckoning. Ended up at Taka’s for dinner and home after that.

I would definitely recommend going to Fremantle for at least 2 days to cover everything. There is still the Fremantle Prison tour (which I went to back in 2003), Fremantle Markets (where there are performers during weekends), the cappucino strip for good coffee and gelato, and not forgetting the other wonderful museums and attractions in Fremantle.

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