Going West Tour: Day 6 Golden Perth

By the numbers

18,744 steps

14.19kms

The night was pretty warm and the biggest problem was my window wouldn’t open. I had assumed that the window was jammed shut for a reason that was to do with the place I was staying at. At least I did sleep, which I was happy about. Later on between wanderings, I managed to track down the guy who had checked me in. Nice bloke, but he wasn’t impressed when I told him about the stuck window. Someone had actually jammed it closed so it was difficult to open. It opened alright after he used a series of tools. Now I have a window that opens and closes. He did suggest that I use the bathroom fan to cool things down and that was what I had been doing. Hopefully with the heatwave floating around there will be a little bit of a breeze coming in. One problem solved without having another two nights of sweat.

 

Once I got out of bed and moving, I took off walking after I got sandwiches and a coffee from 7/11. I was heading towards the Elizabeth Quay area just to see what was down there. Along the way I found a computer gaming cafe, where they told me I would get a better coffee than the one I was drinking from 7/11. I totally agree with that statement. I got myself stuck walking along the side of a freeway and a building site that had no footpath, luckily I could cross over from traffic lights that was where the Perth Underground went through. I ended up outside the old supreme court and could feel the weather warming up so I knew it would be another really warm day, where I would be careful not to get too hot and fried again. That was only 8am and I had around an hour to be at the computer game museum that was several kms away.

 

By the time I reached where the museum was, I stopped for a drink while waiting for it to open up. The TAFE next door was open with the cafe there so I could walk in like I belonged there to use the loos. Once the gaming museum opened up I was able to show that I was booked in first thing, and I was the only one there. The afternoons were the busy times so I was lucky. They had many of the gaming machines like the Atari and even the basic things from the very beginning. I was laughing at the televisions that were there as they had no remotes. It was interesting to see what they had like the Super Nintendo, they didn’t have AFL I asked. They even went all the way up to Playstation 1 and Xbox. I was even able to play some of the games for around an hour as they had a group coming in that had booked the place out. I could come back, but I already had an appointment elsewhere at the Perth Mint. It was nice talking about the computer games I played when in school, and I couldn’t remember all the moves in Street Fighter. Still it was fun to play and I had a great time in the morning where I needed to play a game or two.

 

On the way back from the gaming museum, I popped into the hotel I was staying at on the off chance the office was open to deal with my window issue. It actually was, which was great for me. I took another wander through the streets having a look for some of the older buildings that lined Hay street. For some reason there were some nice facades of the buildings, although His Majesty’s theatre looked really impressive with all the white. Luckily I had walked down one end of Hay Street, and The Perth Mint was actually down the other end of the street. That took me past Town Hall, the district courts and the library. It was funny the media were standing in the shade doing some stories from the outside. I had around a 20 min wait at the mint before my tour started. The guide spoke about the gold rush that had began, and the need for the state to have its own mint to service the people instead of having to ship it all to the UK and return with money. We were taken inside to be shown a very large and heavy coin that was actually really heavy and made of real gold that was also legal tender. You just couldn’t move it even if you tried. The Mint had some of the largest gold nuggets that had been found like King Henry that weighed 93 kilos, and the largest silver one ‘The Karratha Queen’, weighing 145 kilos. Both had been found in the 2000s. They were melting gold to show us what was involved during the smelting process. The building they were in was heritage listed and when work was needed to be done like on the roof, they cleaned it to the point where they found a pretty large fortune up there from years of smelting, and they estimate another fortune is in the walls as well. The old furnaces had been melted down and they retrieved gold from them too.

 

By the time the tour was done, I needed a refill for my bottle and I was shown where to sort that out. It had hit 36 while I was inside and I wasn’t really wanting to go too much further in the heat. Looking around in the gift shop I was having a laugh with the ladies who were cleaning the top shelves. I mentioned if the boss couldn’t see up there then they are safe. He just happened to be there too. I didn’t find anything I was after, so I wandered off. Along the way I had a look at the local IGA express and found they don’t sell hot food, and the same was with Woolworths apart from chicken. I jumped over the road to the state library to find it was nice and cool due to the aircon. I stayed there for a little bit before heading to the computer game cafe for a coffee as I was happy to relax for a little bit. They are closed on the weekend, so I wouldn’t have another opportunity to visit again.

 

I wanted an early dinner, so I found a place that had chicken Parmi and that included chips as I wanted a decent meal as I don’t think sandwiches are good enough of a diet for something to grab and go. It filled me up so I was happy for that. I returned to where I was staying as the day was still pretty hot out in the sun even if it backed off ever so slightly. I have one more day where I am staying before heading out by train on Sunday so that should make life a little interesting and be a couple of days relaxing on the train as I head to Adelaide.

 

The conversation with the hotel manager yesterday was interesting. He had never been over to the East coast before, plus only knew of several locations he had visited in the state of WA. I don’t hold that against anyone as there are many people like that on the East Coast.