Perth Part 2
Trip Start
Oct 14, 2007
1
44
92
Trip End
Jul 25, 2008
Where I stayed
Mandy's apartment
Perth, Australia
Saturday, March 15, 2008
After our tour of Rottnest island, we decided to get the heart pumping and signed up for a torchlight tour of Fremantle Prison which closed in 1991 and became a tourist spot. Fremantle is a coastal town about 45 mins from Perth and has a beautiful harbour. When we arrived at the torchlight tour, we didn't know what to expect. We saw a coach load of school kids nearing the gates and thought the worst (stuck with a load of screaming kids for the next hour and a half!). Luckily they had their own tour guide and the tours operated in 20 minute intervals. Our very animated tour guide picked us up and handed us all little flashlights and we were off to explore the prison and hear about some of the supposed supernatural happenings. I'm not sure what I believe when it comes to the subject of ghosts. I think I would have to see to believe.
Literally 5 minutes into the tour, a woman freaked out and decided she couldn't go on and turned back to wait outside. Lucky she did because at that point in one of the pitch black cell blocks the tour guides played a prank on the whole group. He was informing us of the suicides that happened in the prison and explained the reason for installing a mesh wire between the ground floor and top floors and asked us to look up. Out of the darkness was thrown a dummy in the shape of a human corpse and everyone starting screaming. Nick was looking somewhere else at the time and missed the whole thing (typical!) and I was too scared to even scream!
This set the tone of the tour I think. At every turn we were waiting for stuff to pop out at us. What was also funny was that as we continued round, after about 10 minutes we heard the group of children screaming and crying behind us, obviously after having the same treatment. For some reason that made me and Nick laugh quite a bit.
The tour continued with actors jumping out of cells to act out certain parts of prison history. No real ghosts though. I have had a close look at my pictures too but I don't think there was any supernatural activity in them. It was a fun night and the enthusiasm of the guides really lightened the mood and made it enjoyable.
I have finally met all of the Moir clan, meeting Nick's cousins Cassie, Laura and Lewis and had a night in the casino at the nearby complex betting a big budget of $50 all on red on the roulette tables (we are big spenders!) only for it to come up on 0! I suppose it serves us right...
To finish off our final days in Perth, we took a day cruise up the river in Phil's boat with Laura and Lewis and the views of the city were incredible. We saw a dolphin swimming at the front of the boat but they are just too fast to get a picture of them and you end up with a picture of the water.
A big thank you goes to Mandy and Phil for letting us stay and spoiling us rotten. I think we have eaten enough lush food to live off for the next month and we have had a really good time. Unfortunately it's back to soups and super noodles. So we leave Mandy and Phil (and Winnie) and look forward to a hectic 24 hours, landing in Melbourne for the Grand Prix at 5:00am and leaving to be back at the airport the next day by 5:00am to fly to New Zealand! Back on the road again leaving normalcy behind, we board a night flight to Melbourne. I bid you farewell and goodnight.
