Day 24 Rottnest Island

The Dawn Princess was at Fremantle Wharf this morning

We drove to Fremantle this morning to catch the ferry to Rottnest Island which is 18kms off the coast of WA.  Rottnest is 11kms wide and 5kms long and has coral reefs for diving and snorkelling.  It is also the only place where the Quokka exists - a small marsupial, a bit like a small kangaroo.  Willem de Vlamingh, a Dutch mariner that thought that the quokkas looked like giant rats. When he landed in 1696, he named the island 'Rat's Nest Island, or in Dutch, Rottenest Island. The 'e' was eventually dropped and today it is popularly called Rotto by local West Australians.

This is the ferry we caught

We caught the 11:45am ferry which takes half an hour and sat on the top deck.  All was going well until we hit the swell half way out.  Peter was fine but I was feeling decidely queasy.  I somehow managed to contain myself until we arrived.  Once there we had some lunch and then hired some bicycles to tour the island.  You can't take cars to Rottnest, so the only way around is either on a tour (bus) or by bicycle.  We were lucky enough to get fairly new bikes and set off.

Coming into Rottnest Island 

A view of the other side of the jetty

The sign post in the village

Rottnest's coastline is very attractive; there are numerous secluded bays with super clear water and soft, white beaches. The surrounding sea is a marine sanctuary that protects a wide variety of fish and other marine creatures. No pets, guns or spear guns are allowed on Rottnest Island.

Well it looked very flat on the map but let me tell you....................!  I managed fairly well but have to admit that I did have to walk it up a couple of hills.  You can actually ride all around the island.  We didn't do all the trails but ended up doing about 10kms.  I was very proud of myself.  We were also lucky enough to see some quokkas.  I didn't think we would as they are nocturnal but we were going past a treed area and there were several just sitting there.  A great photo opportunity!

One of the quokkas

One of the wrecks off the island

The landscape is quite varied with grassy plains, woodlands, scattered salt lakes, low lying scrub and bush vegetation.  Peter tasted water from one of the salt lakes and said it was saltier than the ocean.

The salt lake

We caught the 4:30pm ferry back.  The Captain suggested the best place to stop seasickness was downstairs, a couple of rows behind the stairwell.  We did that and I didn't have any problem on the way back even though it was a bit rough.

On the way back to the caravan park we called into Cottosloe Beach to watch the kite surfers.  They are amazing and must have very strong arms because the wind is so strong and just pulls them along.  When they come off they have to let the wind lift them up again.  There are also parts of the beaches that are for dogs and it was great fun watching the dogs have a ball, running in and out of the surf.  They have places where you can grab a doggy bag and bins to put the filled bags in.

Tomorrow we are moving on to Geraldton.

cheers
Pete and Roz