It was pouring when we left home for Brisbane Airport – had been raining all night. The usual 90-minute trip took well over two hours, but we made it in time to drop our bags and join the others waiting to fly to Perth, which inlcuded loads of people checking through push bikes.
The plane was full. Mick had offered to sit in the middle seat (for a change), but he changed his mind as we got closer to our row, as there was already a person seated next to the window. He gave me a pleading look and, I relinquished. As it turned out, even after the person next to me apologised in advance that they snored, they were a great ‘next door neighbour’ as they didn’t budge an inch for the whole 5+ hours.
It was hard to see what was going on during the flight from my position in the middle seat, but this was the map provided by Virgin as we were in the air. Other than the ocean, we did get a glimpse of the Menindee Lakes as we flew above them – but we both thought what an interesting route we had taken.
After collecting our luggage, I phoned the hire car company for them to pick us up, and was pleasantly surprised we were not left waiting for too long, and we soon were boarded on the courtesy bus with lots of pushbikers. We found out that they were all heading to Busselton (where we will spend a week) for a marathon. Apparently around 3000 competitors will take part, not to mention their support crews and family. We thought how lucky we were to have somewhere to stay when we get there on Friday.
I’d booked us into a fancy-sounding bed and breakfast in Fremantle for the night (Fothergill’s), about a 15-minute walk from the main part of town, thinking that a walk would do us both good after sitting all day.
We headed down the hill to find a suitable place for dinner, aiming for a pub we had eaten at on our last visit. But before we reached the Sail & Anchor, we spotted this place – complete with two security guards.
Mick suggested we take a look, and as soon as we walked in I knew he would be happy here.
There was an array of local craft beers on tap, and while he made his selection he was told that tonight the establishment had a special on ‘schnitties’ (chicken schnitzels) for $20, and there was to be the regular Thursday Trivia Night starting at 7pm.
We were lucky to get a table as many tables had been reserved for the competition. Funnily enough, not the one next to the Quiz Master! (mobile phones were banned and impossible to use at our table!) We enjoyed a bottle of red from one of the wineries on our list to re-visit this coming week.
We did not last until the end of the quiz. The two hour time difference caught up with us, and we had performed so poorly in the first three of the four rounds that we snuck out hoping not to be recognised as the team that came last.
In our defence – more than half of the questions were related to contemporary music and musicians – not a strong area for either of us. The only question we were confident in answering was the one relating to the currency of Vietnam (thanks to our very recent visit there).
I am looking forward to my early morning walk around Freo tomorrow.
Jane and Mick's Holiday Adventures 