Our Walkabout

Planet View: S32°32.830′ E1165°44.777′

Street View: S32°32.830′ E1165°44.777′

We spent about a week in Fremantle (with a quick weekend trip to Melbourne for Jarrod and Stacey’s Wedding) where we enjoyed some fantastic hospitality and tour guiding from Sam Harkin.  Sam and I worked together at a surf shop when I was at university in Adelaide, he’s since settled in Perth and become quite the little entrepreneur.  Sam and his partner B own a surf shop of their own as well as a hip little shoe store in the bustling centre of Fremantle.  The day we arrived Sam had organized a team of graffiti artists to paint the wall down the side of his Mi-Life shoe store, we went by to see them work their magic late into the night, the amazing mural below the result (credit to Tim Swallow for the collage below and group shot here).

Fremantle has a lot of history to it, it’s one of Australia’s oldest port towns and has had the majority of the beautiful old buildings maintained, adding a lot of character to the main business district.  Central Fremantle is filled with hip clothing stores, a plethora of coffee shops as well as a fun weekend market where one can buy anything from fresh pastries to local artwork.  Lisa and I borrowed a couple of Sam’s bikes one afternoon for a tour of Fremantle and some of the Perth city beaches to the north, a great way to see the coastline (although neither of us will ever be building fixed-gear single-speed bikes like the one Sam lent us!). 

We all took a trip to Little Creatures Brewing one evening, a brilliant brewery on the docks of the Fremantle harbor where all of the beer manufacturing is visible from the bar and restaurant via huge glass walls.  The beer’s not half bad, too!  One of Sam’s mates we met at the table works as the first mate on Luc Longley’s yacht, which was docked a few hundred meters from Little Creatures.  To finish the evening we all enjoyed a beer on the yacht, an amazing vessel, interesting to see what kind of toys one can buy after a successful NBA career next to Michael Jordan (unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me that night…). 

We couldn’t have asked for a better host in Sam, he toured us around the better part of Perth one day, showing us the city’s main beaches as well as the fantastic views of the city from King’s Park.  We both had a great time with Sam and his housemate Cal and we’re both already missing Sam and B’s dog Jack!