Thursday 27th December 2007

As Christmas had drawn to a close, so had our time in Scarborough beach. We packed our bags and after breakfast, checked out of our hostel and walked down to the bus stop, where we caught the bus to Fremantle. The bus ride took a while and when we finally got off we quickly found our hostel, the Backpackers Inn Freo YHA. We checked into our room and then hung about for a bit before having some lunch.

This afternoon, we had a quick walk around town and then went to Fremantle Prison to do one of their tours. This prison was fully operation until 1991, and was only closed then because the prisoners were living in inhumane conditions - even that late in the 20th Century, they didn't have flushing toilets - the did it in a bucket... uuuurrrgggghhh! The tour was really good, and even though we've already been to two other prisons (Port Arthur and Melbourne Gaol) on this trip, Emma had a good time. We were taken all around, and we got to go into the kitchens, the exercise yards, the cells even solitary confinement. The tour ended where it did for some of the prisoners... in the gallows!

After our tour, we had another look around town and then Nikki and Emma went and did some shopping for our tea. We came back to the hostel and Niks cooked us some burgers on the barbecue. We then spent the evening sat around chilling out.

We've been in some pretty basic hostels, but at least they've all had flushing toilets!

Oh, we were also told that this Christmas was the HOTTEST on record in Western Australia - with Boxing Day reaching 44°... no wonder the beach was busy!