Kemm and I flew firstly to Sydney and stayed overnight at Rydges at the airport. Caught the T-Bus from the terminal and had a bite to eat downstairs. Took a wander over to the international just to stretch our legs. An airside room is always good t Rydges as you can watch the aircraft take off and land for hours!

next morning (Friday) we caught the T-Bus back to domestic and eventually boarded Virgin’s 777 in business class, their new ‘Suites’. Window seats are single only so Kemm sat in 3a and I was in 4a. Delightful flight over to Perth, nearly 5 hours and 2 movies later, into Perth.

caught a cab into the Hilton, nearly $50 cab fare!  Met up with a group of AFFer’s for dinner at ‘The Painted Bird’ restaurant.

Saturday morning, as a group we all walked down to Barack St wharf and boarded the tour boat down the Swan River to Fremantle. took ages! But ot was a gorgeous day and lovely cruise.

transferred onto the Rottnest Explorer for the 30min trip over to Rottnest. Had a great day doing a minibus tour around the island. The bays are beautiful, cycling is the only way to get around the island other than regulated vehicles on the island. However there’s 26kms of cycling for the unwary!

Had a quick couple of drinks at Hotel Rottnest before getting the ferry back to Fremantle then on to a bus back to the city.

Had dinner this evening at the Grande restaurant in St George’s Tce, delightful but long and boring guest speaker.

Sunday we had a bus trip down to Fremantle prison with a guided tour, followed by a visit to the RAAF Aviation Museum.

After that we headed off up the Swan Valley to Jane Brooke Winery for a delightful ‘shared basket’ lunch. A fabulous idea with bread, cheeses, pate, dip, coleslaw, strawberries – all yum!!

Back to the Hilton and some were planning heading off to a Korean restaurant but didn’t pan out too well as we were all buggered after a busy weekend!

A great weekend all round!