Today we did a tour of a submarine called the SS Ovens. I saw a big test missile that when they got shot, they just floated to the surface. The propeller was as big as me. First we went into the missile firing room. There was a picture of a missile firing (he drew a picture here). The beds were tiny. There were little tiny boxes for their clothes, about the size of 2 shoe boxes stacked up. The kitchen was half the size of our caravan. The captain had his own cabin. The driver was very, very squashed. There were dials, buttons and levers everywhere. The toilets had no seats and were just plain metal. The sailors remembered what dial to spin by it's shape (he drew another picture here).
It can be difficult to get the boys to write in the journals sometimes so for Jack to write that much means he was very interested in what he saw.
Later that afternoon we met up with Ben, Harry, Judy, Monica and James at the river in Bicton which is the next suburb on from East Fremantle. The boys had bought their kayaks down for our boys to have a turn of which they really enjoyed, particularly Jack.
Here is Jack paddling around the boats with Harry.
The next morning we checked out of Karrinyup Waters Resort and drove to a suburb just out of the centre of Perth called Mt Lawley. Our friends from Broome, the Thorn family, were staying at their uncle's house for a couple of weeks after their trip to Bali. So we parked our van on their nature strip and stayed for a couple of nights. The house was amazing, an old house with an enormous vegetable garden, a fishpond, a trampoline and even chickens. The boys all went for a long bike ride one day and then we spent our last night in Perth at Cottesloe Beach. We were keen to watch our last sunset over the Indian Ocean but it wasn't a great night for it. For starters it was freezing but it was still good to watch.
There was a sand sculpture down on the beach that the boys were very impressed with.
As you can tell our expectations have been raised very high in WA as to what constitutes a good sunset. This last one, although impressive, was not one of the best. Gives you an idea of how good the really good ones are!
The next morning we went to Kings Park for our final Perth expedition. We met up with Ben and Harry etc again (minus Judy who unfortunately had to work) and the Thorns at the Rio Tinto Naturescape play area. King's Park is an enormous park in the centre of Perth. A lot of it is bush but there are quite a few areas that have been "tamed". This area was still reasonably natural with lots of water features, including a billabong and wetlands. The older boys had a ball here, particularly on the ropes course.
As you would expect, the boys were all throwing rocks into the water.
On the ropes with Ben and Harry.
We didn't stay long at the park unfortunately as we were heading to Albany which is a good 4 to 5 hour drive away. So we said goodbye to the Thorns who will will see in Melbourne when they return next year and goodbye to the Scullins who we will hopefully see soon too. We are hoping to get together for a Freo vs Bombers game one day. We really enjoyed meeting them and spending time together as they are a really lovely family. I can only hope our boys turn out like Ben and Harry as they are both great kids and their parents should be very proud of them. Their parents are great too! Thank you Ian and Judy for spending time with us in Perth, make sure you plan a visit east very soon, we would love to see you all.
So goodbye to Perth. We are now heading east and really feel like we are on the way home. We have to be home in about a month so I am desperately trying to savor every minute of the last couple of weeks as before we know it we will be pulling into Barclay Drive.
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