Day 35 Monday you can fall apart

And I did :o( Was one of those days.

Finally made it out of the house around midday and went to Perth Mint which was very interesting. Did you know..... that gold melts at 1064C? They heat it to 1300C for pouring to make into those nice bars. Takes less than a minute to solidify in its mould and can then be turned out and immersed in water where it cools to handling temperature in a couple of minutes! Amazing, and great to see the whole process in front of your very own eyes. They have an interesting display of all the different types of gold bullion and bars and how different countries have kept their gold. Also incredible is that there are very few bullion stores and one of them is the Bank of England.

After the Mint, I pottered about Perth, it was getting on in the afternoon, so no point in trying to 'do' anywhere else. It's funny having to learn new places every week or so, think I'm getting the hang of it now. At least over in WA the names are different. Places are named after the explorers and pioneers, so for example in Sydney and Melbourne there are a lot of common street names between the two. Very confusing. So, this afternoon, I was getting the hang of the layout of Perth. Didn't do too badly, even made my way through a couple of malls without getting lost.

I decided to walk home along the Swan River as far as I could. Checked about ferries to Rottnest Island and enquired whether it's safe to go there yet. No, there aren't dangerous animals. It's 'schoolies'. After the equivalent of 'A' levels, the lovely school leavers all seem to go on a mad drinking holiday and three thousand of them have descended upon 'Rotto' over the last few days. Happily, they're leaving Tuesday/Wednesday so I was advised to wait until Thursday/Friday to make my day trip!(Not that she mentioned that to the English couple in front of me!)

So I followed the shore line. Spotted some fish right up close to the edge. I'm sure someone knows what they are it but I don't. Then there were some birds. We think this black one is a Shag.












The emblem of WA is the black swan (Swan River...). So that's probably what this one is.






Saw a rat and some funny 'creatures' on the rocks too. Neither of them would stay to have their pic taken. I did persuade the city to stay still a moment though.
Do you think it would be difficult to work here?










Trying not to be run over by the cyclists on their way home, I continued on my way. Until I saw these fins in the sea. I looked again and yes, it was dolphins!!! What I had spotted seemed to be two or three swimming along, breaking the surface every now and again and then disappearing once more. Once I looked I then saw another set a bit further away. I sat down and watched. Magical! Of course, couldn't get a decent photo because by the time I'd see them starting to surface and got my camera pointed and clicked they were underwater again. The pics are in my head though.

So, good day, bad day.

Tomorrow, I'm going back to Fremantle. The lunch club won't be there but there's plenty else to see!

G'day ;o)