On Saturday we went to see The Sourceror, the first G&G collaboration operetta. Most of the singers weren’t that good, but there were some very good comic scenes and the chorus sounded really good. I was a bit doubtful of going to two shows in one day, the second being in Fremantle in the evening. So, I pursuaded Stephen that we should stay in Fremantle overnight. The second show was memorial to the Indigenous Workers’ Strike of 1946 (is that the year?). We could order a meal, so that was tea taken care of, and I booked the Fremantle Caravan Park about 5 kms away.
After the G&S show at the Dolphin we headed to the caravan park to check in. They have a little enclave for campervans and we liked the setup. We backed in, but decided to drive into the site when returning later as it was easier and would mean we wouldn’t have the morning sun streaming into the van through the sliding door.
We enjoyed the whole evening, meeting up with Eversley, who had confirmed about the meal availability and booked us a table. For $20 we had a generous sized roast each and stewed apple and oats desert. The desert was so healthy that we all agreed that it felt like we were having our breakfast, but it was still appreciated. There were two other Working Voices choir members there and they joined us at our table, which contributed to the enjoyment of the evening.
The acted parts of the presentation helped to tell the story. There was some original music for the show and they finished the night with the Whitefella Paul Kelly’s song ‘From little things big things grow’ and we all sang along. Indigenous folk from the Pilbara where the strike took place had come for the show.
Normally we avoid alcohol if we have to drive, but over the course of the evening we shared a couple of small bottles of cider. The short drive to the caravan park was accomplished without incident. I used the park showers and we plugged the van into power. That was about it for set up.
We had a good night’s sleep and got away just about on time. We wanted to spend a little time actually at the beach, since the disadvantage of the caravan park is that it is about 2 kms away from the ocean. We tried the North Mole, but it was closed off for some reason. There were about three signs about the closure, one would have done, together with the locked gate across the road. Perhaps it comes under several different authorities.
We drove along the road towards Cottesloe and snagged a good spot overlooking the sea. There were lots of people at the beach, but despite the warmth it wasn’t an ideal day with soft clouds bringing out the stingers and the beach littered with seaweed after last week’s storms. The water did not seem inviting and more people were on the beach or SUP boards than in the ocean. I made us coffees and we had some muffins that I made a couple of days ago. We felt very blessed and got lots of looks from people – hopefully just admiring our setup. The cafes were pretty busy with long waits for coffee. It was good to be independant.
At about midday we drove home. Matt came in the evening and we had a cake that Eversley had brought to our choir meetup on Thursday, which wasn’t needed for supper as we had so much food, including another cake. Matt had four little slices, Stephen and I had two. The choir meetup was in South Fremantle on Thursday evening, another reason why I wanted to stay in Freo on Saturday night, I didn’t fancy the long drive home again, especially without being able to have an afternoon nap. If we hadn’t been staying nearby we might have slipped away early from the show.