There are no cars on the island...only the bus that takes people around...and lots of bikes. Although it is not home to people, it is well known for the resident quokka...a tiny marsupial the size of a cat and also looks like half rat. It was first seen in 1658 by a Dutch mariner who named the island Rotte Nest, meaning "rat nest" in Dutch.
My ferry left at 8:30am and travelled for an hour along the Swan River. Lots of beautiful homes...multimillion dollar properties...including the most expensive home in Australia coming in at $85 million!
Further along we went by Kings Park where we saw the front of the Swan Brewery...
As we approached the end of our journey along the Swan River and came into Fremantle, we passed the newly constructed Shipwreck Museum...shaped like a capsized ship.
At Femantle we picked up more passengers and then headed out into the Indian Ocean towards Rottnest. We arrived close to 11:00am and the next 30 minutes was a bit of pandemonium ...lots of people disembarking, picking up bikes for hire, getting luggage and heading along the Jetty towards the Information Center...plus it was HOT at 37 degrees!!
I made my way over to a little restaurant to pick up some take away...there are no other places to eat on the island...and eventually caught the bus at 11:45am, ready to hit the beach. I spent the next 45 minutes travelling around the island...one section is good for snorkelling and the other for the beach. Along the way we saw stunning views of rocky coastline, coral reefs, turquoise water, great surf and lovely white sand beaches.
I finally arrived at my destination...Ricey Beach...at the recommendation of the waitress at the restaurant. What a spectacular little hideaway...not many people, beautiful waters and lots of sandy beach with rugged rock. Just what I wanted!
As I was walking down the path to the beach I suddenly came across several quokka hanging out on the path...awesome! I ended up sitting down and letting them slowly come up to me. As I sat down I opened my bag which also had my food in it...and all of a sudden I had 4 new friends. They came right over to me and were scratching my bag. I moved it from time to time to distract them...and hopefully take some pictures...but they were having no part of that. I stayed a while...along with lots of others who stopped on the path...took lots of pictures and even had a little pet.
After I had my dose of quokka I finally ventured down to the beach...yippee!! Lots of things to take pictures of there as well.
I finally found a spot to settle and enjoyed the next two hours of sun...with a lovely and well needed breeze. I thought I might go for a swim, but it was cold!!...not sure if it really was cold or I was so hot it just felt cold...but I tried three times to go for a dip with no succes. Took a stroll up the beach...lots of little shells...and after two hours headed up to meet my 3pm bus.
By the time I arrived back it was time to board the fast ferry back to the mainland.
This time it was very rough as the winds had picked up over the afternoon...lots of rocking and rolling, and a few splashes along the 30 minute ride. At Fremantle we headed back along the Swan River...much calmer...and I met up with the German couple I met on my way over. Had a relaxing sail back and saw some nice views of Perth upon our arrival.
Arrived back on schedule at 5:45pm in time to meet Cathy. A great day overall...except I would have loved to stay longer. Came back to Cathy's and had a much needed beverage, shower and a delicious meal....time to cool off my very toasted skin after my first sunbathing day in Australia.
Tomorrow...my last full day in Australia...will see us going to the Swan Valley for some wine, beer, honey, cheese and chocolate tasting!!
Until then...
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