Before I begin today’s entry, I will answer a question posted to me from the comments and texts I often receive.

Q: A reader from Florida (LC) asks:

Q: Why are there so many red headed lizards (Agama) in our community?

A: I have read the recently updated by-laws as well as guidelines for MS. As long as they are not wearing ripped jeans or baseball caps after 5:30 PM, they are permitted.

The one problem we have found with Australia is that after each port of call we want to move there. Fremantle / Perth is one of those destinations, as was Busselton, as was Adeline, Melbourne, Eden and Sydney.

Each of these destinations is unique, their fingerprints a unique mark on the red continent of Australia. To our friends, Leonie and Allan, who chose to live in AU after searching the globe looking for a place to call home. we now truly understand why.

We sailed into Fremantle (Freo) at dawn, ushered in by the tide under cloudless skies, once again. The charming town of Fremantle is nestled just south of Perth and clustered along the port of entry and often overlooked due to her glamorous big sister just off her shoulder. But Fremantle is the quiet beauty of the two; with charming architecture mixed in with modern structures, buildings and haphazard streets laid out in a European style. There is a lot to explore here and we needed more time. Maybe Leonie and Allan’s realtor can help us out with that.

We had purposely not scheduled an excursion on this port of call, because we wanted to explore Perth on our own. We awoke leisurely and strolled up to breakfast, overlooking the port and Fremantle off our port bow. Somewhere between the Miso soup, fresh squeezed Orange juice and still warm bran muffin, we spotted a local commuter rail on the starboard side of Serenity. This was going to be our method of travel.

There are a couple of things we really like to do in places we have never been to: Use mass transit and visit a grocery stores (a Meredith thing). Like all mass-transit we have experienced in Australian cities, once you enter the city proper all busses and trollies are free to get on to or off of. It is only the lines outside of the free zone that you pay for and the fees are modest. As we sat with our tickets under the train station awning an announcement from a real person notified us that our train was waiting for us a little further down the platform, past the bicycles to our right. Personnel are always very helpful and eager. It is not uncommon to have conversations with the conductors, platform personnel, bus drivers or anyone involved in transit as if you have known them your entire life; you know where they were born, live, vacation, etc. No-one is scratching their initials into the glass, slashing the fabric on the seats, leaving trash and spilled cups behind.

Everyone is courteous and respectful, even if you sense they are in a hurry. There are no adverts in the cars, only signs to reinstate being respectful to the transit personnel or to your fellow passengers and it seems to hold true.

We have also noticed the attention to making sure mass transit is for everyone so there are clearly design features for those needing wheel-chair assistance or seats close to the doors and that they will not encounter any hurdles getting on or off a car or in or out of a station. There is a civility here that is unmatched. Leonie or Allen–we have not yet heard from your real estate agent!

We took the blue line train into Perth and then waited for the free Blue-Cat bus line out to King’s Park. Thank you Shelly from Adelaide for recommending King’s Park! The ride along Victoria Quay gives you an opportunity to see the architecture of this city, which like all the cities we have visited are beautiful, cosmopolitan and spotless.

King’s Park is located high above the city proper, offering spectacular views, beautiful garden trails of meandering concrete, grass, gravel and wood shavings. Some of the hiking loops are 2.4 KM and some are pretty steep.

One can make a trail as easy or as hard as one wishes to exert themselves by taking the cut-throughs of stairs or natural walkways that traverse through the designated routes.

It was a little warm in the sun so we opted not to take Jacob’s ladder down to swan river (242 concrete steps).

You can walk over a glass bridge or through shaded elevated boardwalks.

There are water gardens and grassy hills to just lie back and look up into the blue sky. All these pathways are blazed and maps conveniently located along the way making it easy should you accidentally stumble into this park.

There are amphitheaters, monuments, sculptures, pavilions and benches tucked away for your escape high above the city where the breezes are refreshing on hot days.

There are so many unusual plantings here that are similar yet so different. Australia has many indigenous species, unique to this continent that I could overfill this post with. Here are a few:

After our 15,000 steps, we headed back to port, where I left Meredith in pursuit of a brewery that one of the transit personnel at a station informed me of.

There are so many intriguing station stops between Perth and Freo I could have exited and explored, but that is both the beauty and curse of a cruise ship. On one hand you travel the world, unpacking once but on the other there is never enough time in each port to see all there is. That said, it appears not one brewery would escape me.

Back onboard, it was time to shower, shave and…. of course….. stage for the dress:

Time to set sail. Broome, AU is our next port of call a sea day from now