Fremantle Ferry

	Captain Bill Edgar and my wife share the steering.

Another name for this film could be "The Swanless Swan River"! We wanted to travel from Perth to Fremantle and the fastest and cheapest way to do so would be by bus or possibly train. However we very much wanted to see some of West Australia's famous black swans and where better to do so than on the Swan River?

We enquired about a ferry to Fremantle and discovered that there was one. We caught the bus to the ferry terminal, where we discovered that "ferry" is a slight misnomer: it is, in fact, a cruise boat - and priced accordingly. However we paid up with a slightly stiff smile and took our seats.

The captain was a real character, with a fine line of patter and Australian humour that spared no one, foreigners, Brits (b***y poms), politicians, rich developers, and the person who set up a yacht club with a membership of one for the tax advantages! He made the hour-long cruise seem like half that time.

On the way back we mentioned to him our wish to see black swans and he promptly diverted the "ferry", cruising round all the likely spots where the swans might be found. Unfortunately, his kindness was in vain as the swans had all gone over to the other, shallow, side of the river (Point Walter) and we only caught a glimpse of some black dots that might - or might not - have been the famous swans.

We can certainly recommend Golden Sun Cruises from Barrack Street Jetty, 31 57 34.94S 115 51 27.76E on Google Earth.