Due to a small plane accident in the Swan River in front of thousands of people enjoying the public holiday and waiting for the fireworks in the evening, the event was cancelled due to the death of the pilot and passenger. A very sad event. RIP
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FREMANTLE & Coogee Beach
In the last days of 2016, we took the visiting family to Fremantle - enjoyed a beer at "Little Creatures", the iconic Fremantle brewery, a sunset swim at Coogee beach (near Fremantle).
Coogee Beach, is one of the beaches with a shark protection area, but I was surprised to see many people were actually swimming outside of that area, obviously not afraid of sharks!
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| Top: Little Creatures Brewery (1,2,3) Outside another restaurant (4). Bottom: the fishermen memorial statues, the harbour, view from Cicerellos restaurant over the fishing boats, yellow statue outside Cicerellos restaurant. |
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| A Sunset swim at Coogee Beach |
PINNAROOO CEMETERY
I also took the family to Pinnaroo Cemetery - you can read my 2014 post about it. It's a huge park in the northern suburbs, where there are no headstones or monuments to mark the graves, just bronze memorial plaques.
It's also a popular place to see kangaroos! This time we saw a lot of females with their joeys.
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| Plaques and plastic flowers around the lake, Christmas tinsel around the trees, and Kangaroos at Pinnaroo Cemetery |
New Year's Eve was spent at the Portuguese Club dinner and dance event. The food and company was nice, the music was a bit of a let down, but we still managed to dance.
NEW YEAR'S DAY by the river & FIREWORKS show
On the 1st of January we were invited to spend the day with some friends who live by the Canning River (an affluent of the bigger Swan River).
We love going there, it's very relaxing, and we get to feed the ducks and black swans that come around. Our friends got them used to being fed, he's even bought special food for them and when he calls them they all come running...well, swimming.
We also took out the canoes into the river and swam in their beautiful pool.
A day well spent in good company!
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Top L to R: Feeding the swans, swimming in the pool, me in a canoe
Bottom L to R: My daughter takes off in a canoe near the swans, a Heron in a nest w/little ones, a cheeky duck jumps on the pillows.
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| Lots of black swan awaiting their feed at the jetty in our friend's house |
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| And look at the tiny duckling following the Mother! |
Just 15 minutes, but it's always exciting for me to watch beautiful fireworks.
And that was how we spent the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017.
30th Dec to 1st Jan
Another super post Sami. It must be lovely to live by the river, I have a friend who lives by the river in Maylands, I love visiting her, it's so pretty. It wasn't a wee bit scary all those black swans coming towards you? Very sad about the plane accident, I wonder what will happen with all the fireworks, will they have a show on another day maybe?
ReplyDeleteMy friends's backyard facing the river is amazing! The swans were friendly, the start coming as babies, grow up, have more babies, and my friends feed them and the ducks and coots daily, so they are used to people. One of them came to eat from my hand.
DeleteYou were correct, Sami. I LOVE this post. Black swans are SO different from our own white ones. Their red beaks set them apart, as well as their color. They always make me smile when I see the one at our zoo. I was amazed at how orderly they were. My friend and I fed the koi at our zoo, but before the koi could get the food, the ducks from the area came rushing in and snapped the pellets up.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed seeing your friend's place on the river. It must be fabulous, especially when it's warm. Seeing you in a swim suit made me cold. It's definitely cold here! No chance anyone would get ME in the cold water today.
I also loved seeing the kangaroos and their joeys at Pinnaroo Cemetery. I have never seen one up close or in person, only in photos. I'm not sure that our zoo has any, but if they do, they might not fare well in our cold weather.
It's truly sad about the plane crash. I can't believe it could have happened, especially if it was a beautiful sunny day like the ones you always seem to have.
Thanks for explaining about the Swan Bells Tower. It really looked like a ship with sails to me.
Your
Thanks Elizabeth, I knew you would love the black swans. I also doubt the kangaroos would fare well in very cold weather.
DeleteThere's going to be a long investigation about the crash, but from the film scenes on tv he flew too low while turning and hit the river. Every year there are acrobatic shows over the river on Australia day, and even though there's never been an accident, this one could have been a lot worse if the plane had crashed over the barges packed with the fireworks explosives or over the hundreds of small boats that gather around the area for the show.
It's very sad to hear about the accident.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise it sounds like a relaxed and fun way to end 2016 and to begin 2017. Which kind of music did you have at the portuguese club? Don't tell me they played Quim Barreiros and things like that ;)
The club hired a singer all the way from Portugal, but he was nothing special, his music was very repetitive and he spent the whole night videoing himself on his mobile which I thought was a bit ridiculous. But we made the best of it and still had fun. Next new years's eve will be better as the duo hired from Sydney has already played here before and they were great!
DeleteVideoing himself while singing? Just lovely... Unfortunately this obsession with the self-image is becoming more and more comum.
DeleteGood that next year's is more promising :)
Too true, I presume he would be posting his Perth gig on YouTube. A few months ago on the club's anniversary dinner they had this duo from Sydney which everybody loved, they were more mature, played a variety of music from the 70's to more recent music, but unfortunately they were already booked for NY 2016, so the club's President has booked them for NY 2017!
DeleteSeems like a very good start to the new year.
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrew, a good start and a good end too.
DeleteYou sure had beautiful times - how come I (nearly) missed this post?!
ReplyDeleteLiving by the river is beautiful, BIL does so in Emden, so nice, too.
My cousin once was bitten by a white swan, I have big respect towards swans ever since ;-)
So sad that plane crashed and the people passed.
Yes, I too would love to live by the river...maybe one day when I win lotto!
ReplyDeleteSwans are tricky, my daughter was almost bitten by one in Braunschweig actually, when she was feeding it some bread. I think because these have been used to people feeding them since they were tiny they are a bit tamer (maybe?), I certainly didn't fear them.