The One with Bob the Quokka

Thankfully the weather had abated by the time we got back to Perth, and we had glorious sunshine for our day trip to Rottnest Island.

Rottnest (or Rotto as it's more affectionately known to the locals) was named by the Dutch Explorer William De Vlaming, who mistook Rottnest's inhabitant Quokkas for Rats. I can kind of see where he was coming from - they do have rat like faces but are way too big for Rats and jump like kangaroos - makes you wonder what the rats in Holland were like!

H and I got the Ferry across to Rotto, and had a much better commentary this time - in that we could actually hear and understand her, and we even saw Dolphins in the estuary at Freo. As soon as we docked in Rotto we headed to the Bike hire place and got a bike, bought a packed lunch, and headed off on a Famous Five style Island Adventure - minus the lashings of ginger beer.

We set off around the island, towards the lighthouse in the middle. We headed back and forth on one bit of road for a while as we got a bit lost! We stopped for water to admire the beautiful bays with clear turquoise seas, and bits of shipwrecks protruding from the rocks - also to recover from the many hills that everyone had failed to mention.... must get fit again.

We finally cycled up the lighthouse where we came across our first few Quokkas. One at the lighthouse itself was very inquisitive and came right up to H and I. We named him Bob and he even followed us over to where we had lunch, clambering over our feet and having a nose in my bag - He was fab!

Having spent an hour conversing with Bob, we headed back via the middle of the island which has lots of lakes which smelt rather sulphurous - either that or H was telling fibs!

Then we chilled with a cup of tea overlooking the bay, and got talking to some random people, Graham and his Mum, who were rather lovely and kept us entertained all the way back to Perth!