chrischarly

The pilot announced that it was 5 degrees in Perth just before we landed. Not ideal wearing shorts and t-shirts… We had no idea it would be that cold! We stupidly thought it would be nice and toasty! As we declared our Kampot Pepper and spices, we thought that being honest would save us time and hassle. No it didn’t. Being honest obviously doesn’t earn you any brownie points in Australia. Anyone that declared anything went straight through to customs to get their bags x-rayed so we thought we might just as well kiss goodbye to our cigarettes now, and anyone that said they didn’t have anything went straight through to the exit! Bummer. So after queuing up for ages, a lady called us over and asked us what we had, we tried the ultra-smiley and friendly approach and straight away got out our food items out to show her. Unfortunately the supervisor walked passed and said that the pepper would definitely have to go, and being apparently the best pepper in the world, and as it was red impossible to buy overseas, Chris was obviously heartbroken! But being friendly obviously helps as she took pity on us and sent us on our way, without screening our bags! Yay, we got our cigarettes through! So, after power-walking as fast as we could for the exit just in case they turned round and changed their minds we waited until a bus arrived for the other airport, which we got on, then caught local transport into Perth and changed buses into Fremantle. Definitely the cheapest way of getting there, but also the most time consuming!

Chris and Gill dipping their feet in the icy water

Then we set up camp in a café until Gill woke up and came and got us. We then went for another coffee to help us stay awake before going back to hers. Staying awake was a struggle for the rest of the day as we didn’t really sleep much on the plane, but somehow we agreed to go out and watch Gill’s son, Jo DJ at a club down in town, but as he was the last one playing we didn’t leave until gone midnight.

I managed to fall asleep standing up a couple of times, but Chris was fuelled on beer so he was fine, but $10 a pint is a bit steep! Then came back and had the nicest exhausted sleep in a long time.