Fremantle and Mandurah

Today we wake up pretty early again. A good opportunity to take a little trip before the festival performances. Quickly packed the breakfast ingredients, bought fresh almond croissants at the bakery, and off to Mandurah.

An hour later, we're already sitting at a picnic bench in the "Henry Sutton Grove". This small park in Mandurah is surrounded by water on two sides. While enjoying our abundant Easter breakfast (including the particularly delicious Tasmanian salmon), Birgit already spots the first dolphins. A few minutes later, a whole family of dolphins is frolicking just a few meters away from us in the water. What a friendly welcome! On the other side, we're pretty busy keeping the intrusive magpies away from our treats.

Afterwards, we head to the Visitor Center, where we're shown a few boardwalks and other tourist attractions. We follow in the footsteps of Ulrike and German, who were here just a few weeks ago.

Mandurah, similar to Venice, is crisscrossed by many waterways. Many citizens have their house right on the water, usually with a fancy motorboat of their own. That's why there are countless opportunities here to walk along the water and over bridges. First, we walk along the so-called "Venetian Canal Walk". Then we continue a bit on our own, into a bird sanctuary with pelicans, black swans, etc.

Maybe our expectations were too high (Venice), or we've been spoiled by the past few weeks. But apart from the dolphins, this has been rather disappointing. The abundance of water is nice, but it all looks like it comes from a "conveyor belt". Little individuality and character. Freo, as Fremantle is called by the locals, is a completely different league! That's why we're heading back after only 3 hours.

Back in Fremantle, we join in at the festival and are amazed by the performances of the buskers. Especially the German "Sara Twister" leaves us speechless. It's almost impossible to watch her contortions!

After our last night in Australia, there's one more highlight: Cho Kairin. This little Chinese guy is something special. We've never seen anything like it, it's mind-blowing! Definitely check it out on YouTube!

The drive to the airport and the return of the rental car are a bit more troublesome because we were given wrong information at the rental station on the day of arrival. That raises the adrenaline level a bit. But in the end, everything works out. As I write these lines, we're descending towards Singapore.