Three shore days in row, Albany, Busselton and then a really long one for Fremantle / Perth and now we have three sea days while we continue on to Bali. Albany has also preserved many beautiful old Sandstone buildings . As the first European settlement in Western Australia the place is seeped inEarly colonial history. It also acknowledges it had an Indigenous history before European settlement, it is also famous as the last Australian port that the ANZACs saw as they set out for WW1. It isa very pretty little town on a beautiful bay. Our next stop was Busselton and the Diamond Princess was the first cruise ship to visit. The locals see this as a huge advantage to the economy of the region, already famous for its beautiful Margaret River region wineries. They were out in force to offer every assistance to ensure their visitors enjoyed their short stay. As well as organised ships tours they ran a free shuttle bus to the neighbouring town of Dunsmere along the coast and through some of the wine growing areas. The Weather was not kind with showers dampening the weather but not the locals hospitality. Judging by all the shopping bags i saw coming back on board the local economy received a major boost as well and the beautiful Margaret River wineries certainly lived up to expectations. After these two Ports our last day in Western Australia was definitely different., Fremantle is a very busy container port. Here also you see many old buildings preserved, old facades contain new thriving interiors. Jean has been very keen to see Western Australian wild flowers. Here we found our first real display of Kangaroo Paws by the time i had snapped one photo i hadnt realised she as gasping for breath. For someone who loves flowers as much as she does the flowers this trip have not been kind. First the jacaranda blossoms in Adelaide now the wild flowers. Thankfully as soon as we moved away she settled down again. We did a bus tour round around town then a river cruise up the Swan River to Perth. If i had Point one percent of the value of the boat we saw moored in that stretch of the Swan would be able to travel first class around the world for the rest of my life, Marina after marina full of absolutely beautiful boats and the real estate along the river reflects the impact of the mining boom in Western Australia. One house alone recently changed hands for $56 million, and the whole stretch of river bank reflected this booming economy. Perth if definitely the most affluent city in Australia. Where the rest of our trip has impressed me with its preservation of history Perth is a bustling, gleaming, modem city. We again did a bus tour around town before completing our day returning to the ship by train.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 21:21:00 +0000