Rottnest 17th Nov
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We spent a great weekend on Rottnest Island, which is about 11 km off the coast of Perth. It's a small island, no cars, you just hire bikes to get about. Sujata hasn't been on a bike for sometime, but her apprehension evaporated once we got going. There are really good roads and without cars to worry about we struck out manfully on Saturday night and rode at least one and a half kilometers (phew!) to Geordie Bay.
The beaches are sublime, just like every where in Western Australia. In fact it's very hard to find a beach that doesn't appeal anywhere in or around Perth. Then we returned via The Basin to the main settlement called Thompson Bay. We ate in The Lodge Hotel, which hosted a magnificent Thai buffet. The food was fantastic, full of great Thai flavours. For $40 a head we ate like puppies. The Lodge was nicer than the Quokka Arms where we stayed. The Arms were ok, the rooms comfortable and well supplied, but the Lodge was more restful and less funtional. The Arms also managed to forget about both our lunch and breakfast.
The beaches are sublime, just like every where in Western Australia. In fact it's very hard to find a beach that doesn't appeal anywhere in or around Perth. Then we returned via The Basin to the main settlement called Thompson Bay. We ate in The Lodge Hotel, which hosted a magnificent Thai buffet. The food was fantastic, full of great Thai flavours. For $40 a head we ate like puppies. The Lodge was nicer than the Quokka Arms where we stayed. The Arms were ok, the rooms comfortable and well supplied, but the Lodge was more restful and less funtional. The Arms also managed to forget about both our lunch and breakfast.
Thompson Bay, a very small collection of cafes, restaurants, shops and facilities is the main settlement. For the number of people that come to Rottnest, the place is amazingly quiet. Walk 200m out of town in any direction and all you have is quiet rolling bush on ancient sand dunes, the wind and the sky. In the middle the land is flat with 4 or 5 shallow lakes. The island used prison labour (mostly black) to run a roaring trade in salt from the lakes. History is kept very alive by dedicated teams of volunteers who man a musuem and run free walking tours.
We saw rays in the harbour, dugite snakes (7th most poisonous) long black things but not interested in us at all, a sea eagle and many, many quokkas. Quokkas are little wallaby type things with rat like tails. They have a very dozy expression and wander about the bush and the town in equal measure. It is as though they are stoned, and everywhere seems like everywhere else to them. Entirely unconcerned by people, one actually saught us out for a stroke whilst we were cycling.
Sunday we cycled down the east and south coast about half way across the island and looped around through the middle back to Thompson Bay again. We took in Salmon Bay which really is a fantastic looking stretch of surf. Kira and Raya shared a trailer on the back of my bike. Kira loved the chance to take in the countryside. Raya slept, still at the age where the nomad genes in us turn on and say "we're moving, boring, go to sleep".
Whale watching 4th November
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We really did see some humpbacks fluking (sticking their blowholes out to breath and then bringing their tail flukes out of the water and arching them through the air). But they were some way off the boat and judging scale in the water with nothing for comparison is difficult. It was also frustrating to be unable to get closer, I mean without the 40 tons of metal we were bobbing about on. To be able to swim up to one of these elephants in the sea would be a lifetime experience. But we were tantalzed with their tails, waving effortless "goodbye", whilst straining for another glimpse aound the shoulders of others. We'll plan do to it again on a better boat. The Rottnest Express is quick for getting to the island, but not the best design for unhindered sea staring activities. Great day out though, the kids romped about on the boat, the weather was ... (have a guess). And we poked around D-shed in Freemantle Harbour afterwards in the market and cafes.
