Oh Dear!, the world has become a very different place to live in the short time since we published our ‘Merry Christmas’ blog!
Just three months ago:
- we didn’t know the meaning of ‘Social Distancing’ – now it is policed and enforced;
- we had the freedom to travel anywhere we pleased – now we don’t;
- the human race thought it was in control – now nature has reminded us that we are not.
On the upside, the planet is a bit cleaner from the global shutdown in all sorts of human activity; families and communities are once again communicating and re-discovering themselves; many people with time on their hands are getting fit, learning to exercise, learning new skills, reading and educating themselves . . and even catching up on those endless activities like gardening and home maintenance.
We also have the luxury of time on our hands, so we decided to give you a little snapshot (no structure, just randomly as it comes from our recent photos) of what’s happening under our Covid-19 restrictions down here in Perth, Western Australia, so here we go . . .
Our state’s restrictions still allow people to venture out for shopping, exercise, medical appointments and for their employment. For us retired folk this means we have been able to do 3 or 4 bike rides per week (weather is still pretty good – this is our Autumn). Funny how we always manage to visit Café Melograno along the way – note the sign and “X” marks on the footpath – the outdoor furniture is packed away, so we sit 1.5 metres apart along the benches and enjoy our take-away coffees and shared banana bread.
Of the many things we have to be proud of here in Perth, Kings Park and its botanic garden is one that is well worth a visit at any time of the year. With 400 hectares and on some low hills overlooking Perth city and the Swan River, it is one of the world’s largest and most beautiful inner city parks – have a look at the Google image of Perth below.
The Western Australian Botanic Garden in Kings Park has an amazing variety of themed displays of unique native flora.
Here are a couple of examples we found on our walk this week.
This is a view from Kings Park looking east towards the city centre.
And now a few snapshots at various spots from our ride last week around the lovely Swan River.
If you look closely between the two forward masts in the Leeuwin photograph above, you might just make out the bulk of a cruise ship with a conical funnel in the distance. It is the Covid-19-contaminated Artania which finally departed Fremantle port on Saturday 18 April after many weeks of stand-off with the authorities. Despite that, huge medical and passenger assistance was provided by WA, but unfortunately probably at the WA taxpayers’ expense rather than from the pockets of the Artania’s owners.
Cruise ships have been a major contributor to Covid-19 contamination and deaths in Australia. As of 18 April 2020 the Ruby Princess in Sydney has been responsible for more than 600 confirmed cases and at least 20 deaths, and is the subject of an extensive NSW police criminal investigation. The Artania in Perth is responsible for 81 of WA’s 544 cases and 3 of it’s 7 deaths.
Good riddance to them, and we hope that governments around the world, including Australia, wizen-up to these ‘flag of convenience’ businesses, many of which pay little or no taxes anywhere, contribute very little to the ports which they visit, and employ staff under conditions and wages which fall below the standards required by many of the countries which they visit.
On a brighter note, below is a beautiful Indian Ocean sunset taken on Tuesday 14 April at Halls Head in Mandurah (about 60km south of Perth) – Wow!
A recent newspaper article drew our attention to the 88m long, 6-level superyacht ‘Barbara’ owned by a wealthy Russian, which is moored at Fremantle’s Rous Head harbour and on which the crew of about 25 were sitting out their 2-week quarantine after having arrived from the Maldives in March.
We just had to go and have a look. It has 6 levels and apparently sleeps 14 passengers in 7 cabins, and has “all the bells and whistles” as they say. Our Lady M works just fine for us, but there’s no harm in looking (and dreaming) . . . Crikey! just imagine keeping all that glass and stainless steel clean?
Another of our bike rides takes us from home via Kings Park (and Café Melograno of course) out to the coast via Bold Park, and then south down the coast back home.
Fortunately we have not yet run out of wine, and have even found a few pearls close to the bottom shelf to brighten our evenings as the days get shorter.
Coincidentally, today is our 35th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we enjoyed a lovely family lunch yesterday with the main course of Tim’s trademark beef wellington dish – suffice to say a good time was had by us all.
We have mentioned a couple of times on this blog in recent years that “. . plans have to be flexible . . .” and, as we have all discovered in the last couple of months, dealing with the impact of Covid-19 is no different – everyone on the planet has been forced to change their plans one way or another.
Like many others who are fortunate enough to have an annual commitment to their boat in Europe, our plans are on-hold as we await the decisions of the state and federal governments here in Australia, and the governments of Netherlands and Belgium where we had planned to spend the European summer on Lady M.
It may be that we are unable to leave Australia at all this year – time will tell, and we are quite happy to admit that “ours is a first world problem anyway“. We will continue to do the right thing and the world will get this virus under control.
Like everyone else, we wish for a conclusive and speedy resolution to the Covid-19 pandemic. We also hope that all of us, and the governments who represent us, will learn some valuable lessons which will make us better and stronger for it, and maybe, once the suffering has passed, the world might even become a slightly better place to live.
Our travels aboard Lady M 