Rottnest Island

Today we decided to go to Rottnest Island, which is a tiny island (11 km long and 4,5 km wide) about 35 minutes by ferry away from Perth. It´s like the holiday getway from the city. So, we caught the ferry from Perth jetty up a long the Swan River along villas and yacht clubs. In the years past these mansion were one of the top priced houses in WA, nowadays obviously not, but to me they didn´t look it. After a short stop in Fremantle and a quick flat white, we went on with another bigger ferry out into the Indian Ocean and on towards the island. What a bumpy ferry ride that was. Poor little girl next to us suddenly turned white and then green. We did alright though. The day started out partly clouding but as soon as we hopped on the rented bikes - it´s a car free environment - it started to drizzle. No worries, it´ll stop soon. Well, actually after we almost got drenched, it stopped and the sun came out, so it dried up really quick. We did a 2 hour bike tour along the island with a lunch break at a tiny café for some traditional fish´n chips - brilliant.
The island is not only known for it´s crystal clear turqouise waters, where you can snorkel in from the beach, but also for it´s quoakkas... These little creatures look like a kangaroo-meets-a-rat in small! Sersiously. The jump around on their back feet and have the face of a kangaroo, but the tail of a rat. They are pretty tame and clever, because even despite the fact that you aren´t allowed to feed them, people do and therefore they see people eating and ...puuufff they´re there begging for food. One was really cheeky and as soon as I left the table to get me some tomato sauce, it jumped up on the table to get to my chips. It was shooed away though. It kept sneaking around our table, but then lost interest as it wasn´t getting anything from us. Fortunately they aren´t like the seagulls which just attack you and never leave you alone.

After our bike trip on the island we got back to Perth just in time for the BBQ at our hostel. That was a really nice get together. We chatted until midnight out in the back yard. Today´s ANZAC day and since it´s a holiday nothing is open, so we went for another day on the beach.

This place here is pretty relaxed and you meet a lot of people, like in the morning when everyone crawls out of their dorms, we sit out back and decided what to do today. Tennis has been big the last few days with a group of people, mostly from the UK. So, today we were like five going to the beach and just hanging out there.

Right now, I am trying to get on a tour up north to Darwin. I try to do the hop on hop off thingy so I could spend some days at Coral Bay and finally get my PADI diving license and then stay a few nights in Broome and then on to Darwin via the Kimbererly (most known as the scenery of the movie Australia by Buz Luhrmann). So there´s a lot to come like camping under the stars in the Outback, sandboarding in the dunes, bush walking, swimming with the doplihns and if I am lucky with the famous whale sharks, which are out at the reef this time of year. Keep your fingers crossed.






pcitures by _B, views of Rottnest Island and its crystal clear turquoise waters