Homes OZ Adventure: Day 51: Tourist Day, Perth CBD.

Tuesday 14/08/2012 Day 51: Tourist Day, Perth CBD.

We set off early and caught the local bus at 07:45 into town. It rained on/off all day. We got off at the Esplanade Busport. The lady at the Transperth counter explained how we can get around town on the free bus servi ce red, yellow and blue. We visited the W.A. Visitor Centre and picked up all the maps. Ryan & Les caught the red CAT (“Can’t Afford a Ticket”) bus to the WACA and Amy & Amanda went to the Bell Tower. They are now qualified bell ringers. We met up back in the mall and found a place to eat out of the rain. We caught the red bus again to the Mint. Our guide at the mint John is a great talker. It was interesting watching him pour a gold ingot. He explained that gold impregnates lots of the equipment in the melting house. They recover $150 to $200 dollars of gold from each crucible. They recovered a large amount of gold from the old furnaces when they were decommissioned. And he mentioned that the wooden ceiling was scrubbed by apprentices and they recovered $20,000 from the dust. The entire Homes family is worth over $11 million in gold. Ryan, Les & Amanda were able to lift the gold ingot (12.6kg) in the display case. We asked about the 2 ghosts at the mint after being clued in by our neighbour at Coral Bay who used to work there. Yes it’s true, there is a ghost in red who wanders the lower floors of the mint. We caught the red bus again and walked up to the museum. We passed the Central Train Station which is undergoing a serious upgrade. The kids enjoyed the Museum, there was lots to see, especially the Discovery, Mammal & Shell collection. We caught a blue bus to the Busport and then transferred to our bus home. Les followed our progress on Google maps and realised the bus only went near where we are staying and managed to get us off before the bus turned away. It’s now raining this evening.

Daily Stats: Distance: 0km, Duration: 11hrsmin, Weather: Rain, Cold

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