Today we finally make the long trip home... well thats assuming our beloved Qantas doesnt cancel on us at the last minute again. We decide it would probably be a good idea to make the most of our last few hours of freedom given what awaits us in Melbourne - locked down except to get food, or to exercise for no more than two hours a day, all within five kilometres of home, and a curfew. Im not too sure what time the curfew kicks in. Our flight gets in quite late - I hope they dont make us sleep at the airport.
We head down to Elizabeth Quay which is on the banks of the Swan River next to the CBD. It was only opened in 2016 and looks to be an entertainment type precinct with cafes, restaurants, hotels, and a ferry terminal where you can catch a ride across the River or out to Rottnest Island .....and there are bike paths. Ive also read about a structure here called Bell Tower, and Ive been salivating at the prospect of capturing award winning panoramic shots from its lofty spire. Its Saturday morning and Perths cyclists appear to be out
in force. They seem very intent on running down any pedestrians whove got the temerity to get in their way, and we narrowly avoid a couple of nasty collisions. The sun‘s decided to grace us with its presence, and the whole precinct looks very attractive. We reach the base of Bell Tower. It doesnt look very big; ironically just about every other building here seems to be towering over it, even the few that are still being built. We go to buy our tickets to get us to the top. Hmmm. It seems that the only view the tickets are going to get us is of the bells, and even then we can only look up at them from the Towers base. There goes another award winning photo op. If Id wanted to see bells I would have gone to a church, which would probably also have had a climbable tower from which to take award winning happy snaps. We read that there are 18 bells here. Twelve of them are from the 14th century and were previously in St Fields Church in Trafalgar Square in London. They were given to Perth as part of the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations.
Theyre apparently the only set of Royal Bells that has ever left England, and are known to have rung to send off old Captain James Cook when he set off to discover Oz. Ive got to stop using that terminology; our indigenous folk had been here for 50,000 years before Cooky turned up.
Weve still got a bit of time to kill so we decide we probably should see a real Perth beach before we head back to lockdown. I saw a dirty surf pounding in in the half light and freezing cold down at Fremantle a couple of nights ago, and it looked more like something out of northern England in the depths of winter than the golden sands wed been given to expect here. We head west and eventually arrive at Cottesloe. This is more like it. It looks like surfing central. The waters well dotted with black wet suit clad enthusiasts looking to catch that elusive perfect wave.
We needed to leave the surf a few minutes before we got there, so were now in danger of missing our flight. Im not sure I should give the Google Maps machine to Issy to navigate; I
think shes very much hoping we will miss our flight, and having done that fly back to Broome. The road signs seem to have a very different view to Google Maps as to the best way of getting to the airport. We decide to trust the signs. This plan seems to be working well until we have to decide which of four possible terminals our flight will be leaving from. Weve got no idea, and they all look to be a long way away from each other. Issy tries to find the email telling us which one is ours, but before she has a chance to read it we need to make a decision. I gamble on Terminal 1, but a few seconds later she tells me really we need Terminal 3. We need to do a and quickly, but were now on a busy eight lane freeway, with large barriers down the middle, and turning around doesnt really seem to be an option.
