Wed 7th Jul '21 - Day 26

Yanchep to Fremantle

 

A lot of heavy rain and wind overnight and also rain on off through the morning too as we ready the campervan for return whilst at Yanchep Park. The kids are entertained by the grazing kangaroos near the van and with the feeding of a couple of bright green beaked, navy blue headed birds. 

On the final journey, on the way to Fremantle where we’ll be staying for the next few days, we stop off to refill the gas bottle in the van and to find a replacement wine glass we’d smashed on our travels.

Intermittent rain on the final one hour leg to our 3 night accommodation at Be.Fremantle, a set of self-contained serviced apartments on a spit overlooking one of the marinas in this port area. After unloading the van into this tri-level apartment, Kate and the kids stay put and I drive the van back to the Maui depot out by Perth airport, making sure the staff member there is happy with our van so we get our full $7,500 bond back. Thankfully all goes smoothly, not a blinked eye at the orange mud adorning the van and I’m soon in an Uber back to Fremantle.

Meanwhile Kate, Seb & Sienna have ventured out to a nearby playpark and then, I’m guessing at Kate’s idea and Seb’s following insistence, catch one of the free loop buses and journey to South Fremantle and back.

We meet up at the Shipwreck museum near the apartment, admission by donation. Not only does it give us another gold coin souvenir, it sheds more light/reminds us of the Batavia shipwreck story and includes objects brought up from the sea bed from crockery to coins and impressively, in a low light, temperature controlled room a section of the bow of the boat. As flooring, it uses some of the 8,000 bricks ferried by the Batavia as ballast which were to be used as part of the 350,000 brick order from Batavia to Holland through the Dutch Eats India Company. Further, the stones that were to be used as a portico in the city walls, also rebuilt in the room – Sienna was engaged enough by this, Seb not so much.

From there, as the museum closed for the day, we made our way back to the apartment for dinner and bed routines. 

Going to bed I get the laptop out and ready and set the alarm for 2:45am for the England vs Denmark Euro semi-final, with Italy already through to the final having overcome Spain on penalties in the first semi-final.