Fremantle (Perth) Australia

Fremantle Australia


Fremantle Australia (Perth)
For the last day or so we’ve been sailing in the Indian Ocean. The port today is Fremantle Australia, part of Perth Metropolitan area.

This is the end of Cruise #1, and the start of our Cruise #2. Fremantle is Western Australia’s chief port and part of the metropolitan area of Perth. Perth Australia is the capital of Western Australia. So we didn’t get into the city of Perth at all. Population of Perth Australia is 1.8 million.  Because this stop is the end of the cruise for most passengers, there are about 400 of us staying on for 16 more days, and now another 2000 or so new passengers.  Half over. We are required to get off the ship here anyway, whether we are going on or not, so everyone is off the ship so they can sanitize and clean everything before passengers start to come aboard by noonish. We chose to walk into town to Fremantle Markets.

Its quite a walk, but we had an early start to the day, and we wanted to get started before it gets too hot. The other  plan was to also tour the Fremantle Prison.
We should have done the Prison tour first, it was mighty hot doing that after the market. But we’ll start by describing the Fremantle Markets. Its an awesome place, very big where vendors sell lots of stuff:  fruits, vegetables of all kinds, candy, bakery items, purses, jewelry, lots of cooked foods, leather goods…It is very similar to Pikes Place Market in downtown Seattle, except more places to eat. We came upon people eating an amazing looking ice cream cone. It looked so good, so we had to scout it out. We knew that’s what we wanted. So we were on a mission to find ‘it’. It was called a ‘Muffle Cone’.

It was a waffle cone, that was a bumpy looking waffle with ice cream and goodies in it. It looked like bubble wrap. Each little bubble was a soft puff ball of waffle. We did succeed in finding it, found out it’s a franchise.  Lots of different kinds, so we had a hard time making up our minds as to what kind we wanted. ($10.00 each)  Mine that I ordered was Peanut Butter Banana and Carmel.

So inside the puff balls was peanuts, once the waffle is cooked and taken off the griddle, it is immediately shaped into a cone, still warm, then peanuts added to the bottom inside the cone,  peanut butter spread within the cone,  then slices of banana, then scoops of vanilla ice cream, then more peanuts, and then warm caramel. And a few more peanuts to finish it off. YUMMY. It was so good, but yep, it was messy. Gene had  Berry Cheesecake.

 His had strawberries in the bottom, ice cream, several different kinds of berries, and whipped cream. It too was messy. But so good. His dripped on his sock!. The heat melted it pretty quickly.
We didn’t buy anything there at the markets except the ice cream. But it was a good morning for sure, and felt good to be off the ship. Walking around Fremantle and around the town square we saw and heard parrots. They are so beautiful. When you hear them, it makes you take notice.

Then we walked a couple of blocks and bought tickets to tour the Fremantle Prison. Our tour was called, “Doing Time Tour”.

 It was built by prisoners for themselves. The prison  was operational from the 1850’s to 1991.

The tour guide was perfect at narrating our tour, and talked like a prison guard talking to prisoners, and we were the prisoners. Wouldn’t have wanted to be a prisoner in this place. The tour was about an hour and half, and was very interesting. We saw the hanging noose and platform used for hangings, even on the beams above you could see how worn away the wood was, where it had been used lots of times.

We could enter the prison cell blocks, the perimeter walls lined with razor wire. We saw the solitary confinement room, some of the tour group volunteered to be locked inside that room.

Once they were in there, the guard turned off the light, it was pitch black inside, no light, no one could hear anything on the outside, and the prisoners would be in there 23 out of 24 hours a day. YIKES! The wicked looking razor wire placed on top of those 15 foot cement walls is eerie. In 1988 a riot broke out because of prisoner discontent, several guards were taken hostage. There was also a beautiful chapel within the prison, with a beautiful alter.

There is a window pane in one of the windows that has an image of a woman, the image can only be seen on the outside of the church, on the inside its just an ordinary window pane. That  ghostly image is said to be that of a woman who had been hung in the prison.

(Can you see the image?)

The prison then closed in 1991 after a new modern prison was built.  There was a women’s prison also within the compound, but it closed 20 years before the Fremantle Prison shut down once the new womens prison was built. We certainly heard some interesting stories of that prison. Great tour!

Because it was already pretty hot outside, we asked directions to the free town shuttle service, so we wouldn’t have to walk back to the ship. We had a nice day in town, now back on the ship, new cruise and some new passenger faces to look at.


 Next port, Geraldton, that is tomorrow. No sea day in between. Yay!