Wednesday morning
We began our Rottnest adventure by catching the ferry at Barrack Street Jetty. We caught an Uber to the Jetty, leaving home at 7.30 a.m. On the cruise down the river we had commentry, which I found irritating at first, then very interesting. Looking at the changing views from the ferry I was reminded again of how well the early settlers chose the location for the city. Apart from Kings Park there are several areas of bushland along the river. As well as millionaires' homes.
The ferry was only about 1/3 full when we left Perth and in Fremantle we seemed to have lots of people waiting, but only some of those came on board, the rest were for other ferries. We had a fairly smooth half hour ride to Rottnest, there was a swell, but it was fairly comfortable.
Tuesday was sunny and mild, ideal weather for being on the island. We walked up to the lighthouse for the sunset, but as there was no cloud it wasn't very interesting. Still, we enjoyed a drink at Pinky's bar.
Yesterday we woke to another sunny day, with the light streaming into the front bedroom where Stephen and I sleep. Not complaining, we have a blind to shut it out if we wish. It was ideal for going out on the hop on hop off bus around the island. We got off to see the seals and walk along the boardwalk to enjoy the views. There is a coffee van at West Bay and a row of toilets, high end drop toilets with water to flush. They've added shade shelters and seating since last year and it makes a good place to go to focus on sightseeing.
Then Stephen went for a walk to the next bus stop. Eversley stopped off at Geordie Bay and I went home for a nap. All happy to be doing what we wanted.
In the evening we went along the foreshore looking at restaurant menues. We settled on Lantana and ordered what we hoped would be enough food. The salad turned out to be very mingy and we had two dumplings each. Fortunately we still had plenty of frozen sticky date pudding at home, which we had with yogurt. We were back in time to watch the news and the 7.30 report.
Thursday morning I woke up with the alarm to quite a striking pre dawn scene. Eversley and I went out to take photos. Then we went back to bed for a while. Eversley and I had coffee at Frankies before taking the shuttle to Geordie Bay for lunch. Stephen went off for another walk and joined us later for lunch. We shared a good sized salad and a burger between three. Stephen then walked back along the path to our cottage, about thre kilometres.
In the evening we had Annette and Stuart over for drinks and spent the time sitting outside with the gate open. A little quokka joined us. One of the nice things about our cottage this year was that although we have a little fenced off patio area out the front our actual front door isn't fenced off. We had a pregnant quokka visiting us quite often, looking as if she wanted to come inside.
Friday morning was the busy morning as we got up early, dressed, washed and packed our bags so that they could be picked up at 8.00. There was a possible storm forecast and we had a bit of thunder and rain, but fortunately it wasn't raining when we put out of bags and they were picked up almost immediately.
We decided not to hang around until 9.00 a.m., the normal exit time, so E and I went off to the Dome for a farewell coffee. Stephen stayed a bit later, but left due to the cleaners arriving a bit early.
Stephen and I went off to walk the Bickley Battery trail near the Kingston Barracks. It was humid and there were small flies, but apart from the history, there were lovely views and a pleasant breeze when we were in the open overlooking the sea.
We went back to the Dome for a light lunch, a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, rather than our usual 'Big' breakfast. Stephen went off to the museum for a while before we gathered up our things to head down to catch our 2.30 ferry.
We had stored some of our gear in a locker near the Visitor Centre and this made going for a walk much easier than it would otherwise have been. The lockers are paid for on card, so that was easy. Note: we picked up our stuff from the locker before going back to the Dome.
The journey back was actually not a rough ride, a possible storm had been forecast, but it was sunny on our walk and there was no rain for the rest of the day. We could have been unlucky as there was a small tornado in Bunbury in the afternoon, that would have been awful to encounter on a ferry.
On arriving at Fremantle I repacked my suitcase with some of the heavier gear from my backpack and the train and bus journey home wasn't difficult. It just takes time. For the last little bit we walked our suitcases on four wheels from the bus stop to home, and I've decided not to retire my suitcase just yet, it's wheels work well for four wheel driving and that's very positive for travel.
I used a wheeled backpack for carrying electronics and a small bag for my phone, cards, etc. The wheeled backpack is quite heavy even before you put things in it, so not really that suitable. But handy when you have to surrender your suitcase and keep all of your valuables with you. The wheels have begun to break apart and I wasn't sure it would last the whole Rottnest trip, but it has.
I didn't get a quokka selfie with a live quokka, but the knitted quokka sat just as we posed him, so was very easy to photograph.
quokka selfie
all of us
quokka selfie from above
Quokka enjoying a bus ride with us
showing off my new quokka earrings
E is knitting a baby quokka
Beautiful coffee art at Frankies
At Frankies
Introducing kniktted quokka to real one, he wasn't interested.
Pros and cons of the different cottage we had at Rottnest this time:
It is a two bedroomed unit with an external bathroom and extra external toilet. As mentioned above, quokkas can come right up to the front door, and they do. The size of the unit worked for us, especially as we spent most of the time trekking around and eating out. Having an extra toilet was a bonus with three people, especially as it was separate from the main bathroom.
A con is that it is part of a larger house and we had a big group of people staying next door. They did not appear to realise that their voices carried so much into our part of the house and we didn't want to potentially antagonise them by pointing this out. I seriously thought about it, but we often had to pass them on our way in and out, and it would have been uncomfortable. The group were older women by the way, if young people I might have risked it.
Eversley was in the back bedroom which had no power points for charging her phone or using a standard fan. As it is unusually warm this year we were using a standard fan in our room, which had enough power points for charging, one lamp and the fan. She also had to put up with us walking past her window to get to the toilet at night. Although we tried to be quiet we must have disturbed her a bit even though she was using earplugs. Fortunately she had spares and I used them to shut out the noise of the women next door.
Evening at Pinkey's Bar
View from Bickley Trail
Another view on Bickley Trail
Van at West Bay
View of our street one morning
Thursday dawn
Thursday dawn
E's knitted quokka
Lighthouse near Pinkey's Bar
Our cottage
Pelican near our cottage
Two pelicans on the rock near the seals
A quokka takes advantage of a puddle after the rain
Eating healthily, they will eat human food but it isn't good for them
Boardwalk, West Bay
Gulls at Pinkey's Bar
Seals waving their tails in the wind
Bickley Trail
West Bay
West Bay
Stephen is having a think about parking at Hillarys and travelling to Rottnest from there next year. That's because it would maked it easy to bring some cooked food with us. We don't feel like cooking whilst we were away and eating out so much was a bit expensive. E brings a cooler bag with food as her car is parked at Hillarys.
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