Friday night we met up with Helga and Kat. We watched the sunset and had a few drinks at the Cottesloe Beach Hotel. Rupan worked with Kat at Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, she has just started her fellowship at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. Steve has been detoxing since the beginning of January but feels the hot climate together with the constant socializing is having a detrimental effect!
Fremantle Prison is one of Freo's top attractions. We have been here for over two months and had not paid it a visit so we decided to book a couple of guided tours.
We started on the Doing Time Tour. This was very interesting. We were shocked to hear that the prison only closed in 1991, the conditions were very cramped and prisoners had to use a "poo bucket" up until its closure as there were no toilets in the cells. No wonder the prison was prone to rioting! It also has had a number of famous inmates: the lead singer of AC/DC - Bon Scott served time on three occasions!
After lunch we went on the Great Escapes Tour. We were met at the prison gate by an old chap, Steve did not think he would make it to the end of the tour! He regaled as with stories of escape attempts, famous inmates and how drugs were smuggled in, and it was obvious that he had once been a guard at the prison.
(Steve wondered if it was possible to reserve a cell for Rupan - for when she was naughty)
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| Steve outside the Fremantle Prison Gates |
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| Steve in jail |
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| Rupan in jail |
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| The cells as they were in the 1880's |
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| Rupan on the 'poo bucket' |
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| Fremantle Prison |
Sunday morning, we drove down to
Dolphin Scuba in Welshpool and prepared for our first dive in WA. We were running out of excuses - too many sharks, water too cold, no transport and too hot! We picked up tanks & weights and listened to the dive briefing before heading down to Bulk Jetty at the Naval Base, South Fremantle.
We got ready and made a way to the waters edge. Rupan's pressure gauge was pissing air! A technical term that only experience divers will know. Should we abort the dive - as the divemaster recommended. We decided that Rupan did not really need a lot of air so we continued with the dive - hard core! We would not condone this course of action for novice divers as you would probably die ;)
It was an 'exhilarating' dive with a maximum depth of seven metres and the visibility was as much as two metres. Steve spotted four octopuses and two cuttlefish and Rupan spotted a couple of nudibranch.
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| Octopus |
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| Cuttlefish |
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| Nudibranch |
After the dive we headed back to Dolphin Scuba for a sausage sizzle - yum yum! The skillful dive technicians at Dolphin Scuba were able to repair Rupan's air gauge using several spanners, a new o-ring and call to NASA. Altogether a very exciting dive full of high drama ;)
After a sausage we had time for a couple hours rest on the beach before we were due for birthday drinks and canapes at Helga's.
