End of a Century

Monday December 3rd - Sunday December 9th

The passing of 100 days is usually a key point in any event; the first 100 days for a new Prime Minister, how'd he do? The first 100 days of a war, are we fighting the right people? The first 100 days of Big Trip, is bread and water a nutritious enough meal for the next 80 days? Sunday marked the 100th day away. During this time we've passed through 6 Canadian provinces, 4 Australian states, taken 6 flights and passed through numerous timezones, all the while having a fantastic time. All of this has meant that time has passed pretty quickly and with us now making plans for the final stages of the trip the remaining 80 days will undoubtedly fly by too. Best make the most of them then.


News on the end of the trip is good, we have tickets for the Trans-Mongolian train from Beijing to Moscow and as of this week we can also legally enter China thanks to a very swift service from the Consulate here in Perth issuing our visas. Just the Russian and Mongolian ones to go but the Russian one may prove to be tricky.

We've had a pretty relaxing week all told. Thanks to an excellent public transport network here in Perth we've been able to get around really easily, and cheaply, although no matter how good a system is if you can't read a timetable properly you'll come unstuck. This we found out while waiting for a bus only to realise that we'd checked the times for Saturday services. It was Tuesday.

We headed south out of Perth for a day in the port of Fremantle, or Freo if you struggle with words of more than 2 syllables. This appears to be one of the few places we've been where they are preserving their old buildings, or at least the facades, rather than knock them down. It gives the place a really nice feel with plenty of Victorian architecture on show. They've also got the Round House there. This is a building dating back well into the 1800s that was the first jail in Fremantle. It's still in pretty good condition given its age and position on the seafront. Just behind this is the time gun. At 1pm every day a cannon is fired, as it has been for over 150 years, so that captains can rate their chronometers. Nowadays it's probably used more as a signal that it's time to head to the pub for a lunchtime drink but again the preserving of tradition here goes against a lot of what we've seen so far.

Sympathy time now, get the small violins ready. The weather this week has not been great. Temperatures have struggled to reach the mid 20s (!) and by the afternoons any warmth there's been has disappeared with the Fremantle Doctor blowing it's way in. Normally this is a very pleasant breeze but when it howls in as it has this week you have to think twice about going to the beach! We've persevered though and struggled down to the beach a couple of times to have a dip in the Indian Ocean. We also had one long walk along the coast (in the rain mind!) to stretch our legs.

One thing the weather didn't hamper was our trip to Margaret River. This is the main wine region of southern Western Australia and we spent a happy couple of days sampling the local fayre. We also visited the southwesterlymost point of Australia while here too, Cape Leeuwin. This is the point at which the Southern and Indian Oceans meet.

One more week left in Australia and then we're on to country number 3 and New Zealand. We're going to make the most of being in a comfortable house as it'll be pretty much the last chance for a couple of months give or take a day or two here and there around Christmas. We got the tent out this week to check it was all OK and give it a spring clean before it's next use in anger.

The weeks 24/7s:

Monday: Chinese visa? You don't wait long time
Tuesday: Public transport that's designed for the public
Wednesday: Cold and windy, and this is summer?
Thursday: Nearly cold enough to need some trousers
Friday: You can never taste too much wine
Saturday: At last blue skies and warm sun
Sunday: Still not convinced we're insured to drive