Australia 2025

Day 17- The Second Test

Today we spent the morning at the Perth Mint which basically involved in looking at Gold - and a lot of it - in all its pure and impure state. Today, I've probably seen around £100m of the stuff, maybe more considering the prices that gold fetches at the moment.

The Perth Mint was interesting because it's the centre of the gold business in Western Australia and also it's a royal mint, one of the few outside of the UK. It has many nuggets on display as well as a one million dollar coin that's actually worth 100x more. We also saw an ingot being poured by a condescending chap from the Mint.

The main focus today was though, the second test which we had elected to watch in a local bar as Brisbane is five hours flying from Perth and 2241 miles away - not an inconsiderable distance and rather than do this, we decided the Indian-Pacific train was a better option and more interesting. Therefore, off we headed to "The Lucky Shag", one-time HQ of the Barmy Army but now a harbourside bar that welcomes the business clientele from the nearby tall buildings. We ordered lunch (fish and chips again) and settled in to watch the first session amongst the very smug Aussies.

5-2 was not a great start. Duckett out for a duck, followed by Pope without troubling the scorers having chopped on.

Retiring to the hotel where the test was broadcast for free, we watched England get to 325 for 9, Root finally getting his overdue Australian century and Jofra throwing the bat for 38 and adding 61 from a precarious position on day one. Starc eventually claimed 6 wickets in very much a second XI attack for them. As it's a pink ball test, there was a lot of talk about how unfair this form of cricket is especially as the Aussies are rarely beaten - only the West Indies have done it in recent history.

Feeling much relieved, we sought out our only Indian restaurant of the trip followed by a cheap (only $8!) at the Pretentious Bar before heading back to the Belgian bar to mull over the days play. Indian restaurants abroad (I've been in a few now across the world) are not the same as our local ones. The menu in the UK seems to have evolved here whereas abroad they are stuck in the 1980's. Just my observations.