Cottesloe Beach

Today is our last day in Fremantle. We have been staying in a quite unusual house here and one that needed some research.  According to our AirBnb host: “The houses in the strata do look quite unique and although they look old they were built as houses/shops using all recycled materials. They were built in 1980 by an architect, Brian Klopper. “Klopper houses” are now very “Freo” and the Bannister St development was his first one. He did do warehouse conversions – (was one of the very first to do so) – ours were built from scratch”.  So, we can now say we stayed in a “Klopper House”.

After finishing laundry this morning, we head out to look through some shops and to check off the final craft beer place on Dicks list. Clancy’s Fish Pub is our stop for lunch, I had the seafood Paella and Dick had the seafood Corn Chowder, both excellent.

Yesterday, we had decided that we wanted to find the best place to view sunset, since we are at the most western edge of Australia on the Indian Ocean. After talking with several people, it was decided that Cottesloe Beach is the place. We quickly figure out the Transperth rail system and are on our way. A twenty-minute walk and we are on the beach, gorgeous. Lots of time to walk the beach and people watch, a young group of people next to us are practicing their rope walking skills, not too bad either.

A woman and a young boy appear carrying all manner of strange belongings, a white throw, 2 large white furry kind of pillows, flowers, a picnic basket, etc. After some time, they set up near us. The woman and her son are here to help her nephew in a romantic proposal on the beach. The couple will be walking the promenade near sunset and the young boy will run up to them with the ring. The nephew will propose to her, and after they will return to the surprise picnic area that has been set up. It is a success, and there are many smiles and tears. How nice to witness that!

It is a beautiful sunset, but the most surprising thing is that when the sun goes down, the parakeets come home to roost. There are thousands of them and the noise is deafening, just like being in the Hitchcock movie “The Birds”.

We stop for a libation at the Cottesloe Beach Hotel, then head back home for some wine and snacks at the ranch. Freo was a good pick.

Mary

======

An exciting morning – laundry day!   Another fun exercise for Mary as she explores the mysteries of foreign appliances. There are no instructions for the washer so there are detours and blind alleys before the 1^st load is done. The dryer is actually suspended on a wall, upside down, in a half-bath on the main level. Odd, these Australians!

Over the last few days we asked a number of locals which beach is best for a good sunset view. The answer is always the same – Cottesloe Beach. Four stops on the light rail system and $3 AUS each and we’re there. It’s a beautiful beach with nice walkways, park areas for the ‘yout’ and really fantastic sand. It’s surprising how cold the water is, but this is early spring in the Southern Hemisphere and the Indian Ocean takes a while to warm up. I was hoping to see a ‘shark warning’ sign as yesterday the beach was closed due to a great white being spotted off shore. Alas, things are safe again so no photo op.

Mary commented on the parakeets roosting after sunset. Absolutely amazing! Easily thousands and really, really noisy. Evidently their foraging flock gathers together at day’s end (happy hour?) and assemble into large sleeping flocks. They become very noisy at this time to attract more members to the roost. Too cool!

Tomorrow things get interesting as we head to Darwin and the Northern Territories.

Dick