September 3 - spring break trip

This morning I got up bright and early and packed my backpack with lunch, sunscreen, and other essentials for a day stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean. Then Chris drove me in his Honda Jazz (exactly same car as the new Honda Fit in the U.S.) down to Fremantle where I caught the 8:30am ferry to Rottnest Island. Rottnest Island got its name from Quokkas, a marsupial on the island that was mistaken by the island’s discoverer as rats. The island being a “rat nest” led to the naming of the island Rottnest Island. The island is approximately 12 miles off the coast of the mainland, and the ferry ride from Fremantle took just over 30 minutes. Immediately at the end of the jetty after arriving on Rottnest Island I saw my first Quokka in some shrubby vegetation behind a sign. Quokkas are approximately the size of a cat, and look like a cross between a wallaby and a rat. It turns out I ended up seeing several throughout the day, including a mother with a baby, and some of them have gotten very accustomed to the presence of humans – I even saw one being petted by a couple of other tourists.

On Rottnest I began my exploration by walking through the little development by the main harbor, then found the bike hire place and hired a mountain bike. (In Australia the word “hire” is used instead of the word “rent”.) For the rest of the day I rode my hired mountain bike all the way around the 11k long island (the full loop was estimated by the bike hire guy to be about 26k). By the end of the day I was definitely getting sore, and my legs were noticeably lacking glycogen and becoming somewhat fatigued (I guess I’m out of shape!), but it was thoroughly enjoyable. The beaches of the island were quite beautiful, with shallow blue waters gently lapping at the shores. The presence of rocks and reefs (and even a few shipwrecks!) kept most of the water touching the white, sandy beaches very gentle and even calm in many places.

Throughout the day I saw a total of eleven new birds on the island, and got good photos of several birds, a lighthouse, some beaches, and some of the beautiful island scenery. The weather ended up being beautiful all day, right about 70 degrees for the high, and sunny throughout the day. At the west end of the Island I stopped and ate my lunch. While I was eating lunch I noticed some people pointing out to the water periodically, expressing some excitement. I learned that this was because there were several whales (not sure what species?) that would surface every few minutes or so. The whales would just pop the dorsal surfaces of their bodies out of the water briefly every now and then -- I couldn’t see much even when I used my binoculars, unfortunately. It was definitely very cool being able to watch whales while standing on an island in the “middle” of the Indian Ocean!

After I was done with my bike ride, I browsed the few little shops in the tiny little “mall” in the development by the harbor, then went down the road a bit to the nearest beach and lay in the sun for about 40 minutes or so. There were very gentle waves lapping against the shore where I was – that, combined with the incredibly soft, white sand, and the beautifully warm sun made the experience incredibly relaxing and peaceful. J

After my R&R session on the beach it was time for to return my bike and head back to the ferry. The ferry was supposed to leave at 4:30, but apparently there was a mechanical malfunction that they had to fix, inducing everyone to sit and wait on the ferry for an extra 45 minutes before we were on our way back to Fremantle. After I finally did arrive back on the mainland, I walked for several minutes from the ferry to the train station. I bought a ticket and rode into Perth, where I hopped on a different train that went to the Stirling station. Since it was Sunday, Perth’s buses in the suburbs ran only once per hour; I had just missed the previous bus leaving the station, so I called Chris and Diane and had them pick me up (it was only 5 minutes from their house). After we got back to the house I relaxed some more, watched a bit of TV, talked to Chris and Dianne about my day out on the island, and then went to bed.