Rottnest Island

So fun fact: when the first European arrivals to Australia got here in the late 1600s, they landed on the West Coast first. Perth, and the Swan River, were settled early because of the easy rive access to the rich agricultural areas inland. The Dutch named Rottnest Island, just off the coast, as such because they thought the weird native creatures they spotted were actual rats; hence "Rat's Nest" in Dutch. In point of fact, those weird little marsupials are now known as quokkas ("KWAH-kuhs") and they're only found in Western Australia (Rottnest has a particularly large population). While they've got long tails, they're actually a type of wallaby, so they carry their young in belly pouches just like kangaroos. Apparently they've got a pretty big social media following because they smile - a trip to WA isn't complete without a quokka selfie, and I still hadn't gotten one. So the Tuesday I was in Perth I managed to convince Weronika to take another trip to the island so that we could explore and meet some of WA's most famous residents. 

We picked a fairly crappy day to go, actually. The wind was way up, the swell was way up, and the 30 minute ferry ride was basically like riding a rollercoaster. The deck hands on the ferry spent the whole trip checking on passengers and handing out sick bags, and I spent the whole trip standing so I could watch the horizon. Fortunately, since living here, I've taken to carrying seasick medicine in my backpack all the time so that I'm always prepared if someone wants to go on a boat. Safety first. So I made Weronika take some and I took some and we were groovy. 

The wind was accompanied by intermittent downpours, but part of my sales pitch to W was that we'd go to the island and rent bikes so we could see it that way; when she went in January, she used the hop-on-hop-off bus service, so seeing more of it at close quarters was appealing. So we dressed in rain gear and avoided the worst of the rain in the early morning by stopping into the overpriced café for a hot chocolate, and then we just sucked it up and hoped the rain would clear up over the course of the day. 

Rain...

...sun, ten minutes later.

As the morning rolled on, the rain dissipated and we embraced riding our bikes into the wind as our nature-provided daily workout. We wanted to bike the whole 22k loop around the island, and as we made our way west, I started noticing little signs in apparently random places along the road that reminded visitors not to get too close to the wildlife. After maybe my third sign, I started looking more closely and realized that they must get posted in places where the critters nest because, tucked away in some brambles, I spotted a Mama Quokka and her baby!

Turns out it's really not hard to take quokka selfies...

...they're very curious...

...it's just hard to not get totally photobombed as you go!

I learned quickly that the little critters are totally unafraid of humans, they're happy to hop around if you just sit down on the ground to spend time with them, and it's hard to remind yourself that they're not pets when it feels rather like a small house cat has just rocked up to visit with you. 

We spent nearly an hour hanging out with the critters, watching them eat and scurry about and just generally live their curious little lives. Eventually we conceded that we needed to get moving if we were going to continue our circuit of the island, so away we went to the West End.

King's Skink

Osprey rook through binoculars

By the time we battled the wind all the way to the West End of the island, we were running low on time to get back. We had an hour and a half to return, but the wind was in our favor. Weronika is sensible, so we didn't stop to check out the sea lion colony "because we still have plenty of time." Instead we hopped on our bikes and put the pedal to the metal back to town. Her idea was clearly the right one because by the time we stopped to hang out with some more quokkas near town, we made it onto our 4:30 ferry with just ten minutes to spare. 

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur of errands, hanging out with the girls, and soaking up the last days of vacation. Grant was working night shift on Thursday, so when he got out of work at 5am on Friday, he scooped me up to drive me to the airport. We got to hang at his house over a cup of tea and a chin wag (awesome Aussie-ism for a long chat), and then it was time to fly back to the Great Hot North of Exmouth. Awesome Southern Holiday: complete!

Jacarandas in bloom

My personal chef for the week