Scarborough and Fremantle
Nice Beach, Shit Town.
I spent 2 nights there. Do you ever get when you go on holiday, if something isn't exactly as you imagined it, then you instantly dislike it (without really giving it a chance) and want to go back to wherever you were before? I'm always like it. I even felt like it when I first went to Coral Bay. I figured that must be what it was with Scarbourough.
Its (laughably called) winter out here at the moment (its around 26 degrees C), its the end of the holiday season, so the beach resorts are pretty quiet. Scarborough was full of early-teenagers and parents so all the backpacker places were dead quiet. The town is a cross between a busy seaside resort and a small town. The resulting mess is too big to be nice but without enough facilities to be useful. I know its clear violation of my Littlest Hobo rule but all I could think about was getting back to Northbridge.
To be fair, Scarborough Beach is nice. But it doesn't make up for the crapness of the town.
After being so let down, I wasn't in a 'beach' mood and (just to let you know how bad the town was,) I went to Fremantle for the afternoon.
Fremantle
I'd read in the paper the day before the supercarrier USS Constellation and the (missile defence ships) the Valley Forge and Bunker Hill plus a support ship had all docked in Fremantle for some [R&R on their way home from blowing up Iraq.
I went down there to see if I could get some pics of them. When I got there the place was crawling with (as were all the bars in Perth) 6ft chunky crew-cut yanks. Around 7000 had descended on Perth for the week. It was funny watching them at night move from girl to girl to girl without any charm or finesse. It made me proud to be English though, when I watched the girls putting them in their place.
One of the best stories was from Claire a no nonsense ICU nurse (and Ben's squeeze.) Apparently some stocky little marine type bloke who'd be staring at her for a while, walked up to her and looked her up and down. Using 'The Officer and a Gentleman' classic, he piped up with "So. Do you wanna get out of here then?" She said "I don't think so. Thanks" so he tried to charm his way back with "Well we gonna go to the bar so you can buy me a drink?" She just ignored him and turned around. He went to the bar, bought himself a drink then came back and put his arms around her. When she asked him what he was doing, he said "Its OK," he said "Its just the way I dance." She countered with, "Excuse me, but I don't appreciate you dancing like that, and neither does my boyfriend, who is standing behind you." The marine turned around, expecting to eyeball someone and found himself stareing straight into to Ben's chest. As he craned his head up to see Ben looking down at him, he just left quietly, moving onto whoever the next unfortunate girl was.
Anyway, here's the hardware. I couldn't get close enough for a very good shot. Its almost like they didn't want people to get near the billion dollar aircraft carrier and its 75 multi-million dollar F-14 Tomcats, FA-18 Hornets and other support aircraft?!?
Back in Scarborough that night, I realised that sometimes you need to go somewhere you don't like to appreciate the places you do like. I checked out at 10am the next day and was back in my old room (100) at the Underground in Northbridge by 11.