A first trip ‘round the world, part, part 20

When we finally arrived to Freemantle, Perth’s harbor, on that Friday, July 9, we had made it to Australia, but as the crow flies, we were still 1700 miles away, but now just 8 days away from Mt. Buller! 

I remember seeing folks recreating on the Swan River and the place looked really enticing and fun. In 1971, Perth was a bit smaller than Durban with a population of 700,000. Today there are more than 2 million people living in that city! 

At that point, we really were tired. Tired of the ship, of its food, its lame entertainment and eager to move and start doing something after that long, partly unexpected and unscheduled vacation. 

We got through immigration, got our visa to Australia stamped and were eager to walk on the pier to discover that country that we had heard a lot about, but were still fully ignorant of. 

After struggling to learn English for so many years at school, teaching skiing for two full season and spending more than a month on the ship speaking it most of the time, my command of the language was now much better and, at least for me, was no longer a concern. 

Now, all of sudden, I could no longer wait to get there, step into my skis and teach. I know, there was time during the Durban to Freemantle leg that JP and I, half-seriously, talked about selling the skis that were entrusted to us in order to generate some badly needed pocket money, but things were getting much better as hope was now within reach!