Rottnest Island - Rebecca's Belated Birthday Blog

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We missed out a blog on another place that we visited in Western Australia..........this place being Rottnest Island, we visited there on my birthday.

Rottnest Island is a 20km (30mins) boat ride from Fremantle docks. We were lucky enough to have bikes that Lynda and Sean had kindly lent to us. The Island itself is only 11km long and 4.5km wide so nice and easy to ride around!! The ferry that you take accross charges you a fee of $12 to take your own bike with you, which we were quite shocked about but it is still cheaper than renting one when you get there.

As we were there in Australian winter it was nice and quiet as it gets pretty busy with school kids in summer. The weather was perfect for cycling around not too hot. Anyway we rode around the whole Island in the afternoon stopping for our picnic lunch along the way.

The island is surrounded by reef and all the beaches are beautiful, nice secluded bays with white sand and clear waters. We would have loved to have gone snorkelling but the water was just too cold and it is quite expensive to hire a wetsuit.......we were happy enough riding around taking in the chilled out quiet relaxed, car free atmosphere of 'Rotto' as its called by the locals. The locals being a population of only about 400 people!!!!!!!! Nice hey.

Quokkas are a small kangaroo about the size of a rat ( so we were told anyway!). Everybody had said that we must look out for them as they are everywhere and a bit of a symbol of the Island. Guess what did we see one????? hmmmm what do you think......nope! I think it was due to the cold weather and they were all snuggled up in a hole some where. We did however see a kingfisher which I was amazed at, to see birds like that in the wild is a wonderful sight that leaves with you a grateful feeling that you can see widlife like that. It sat on a fence post watching me then flew off into the distance with its brighly coloured feathers on show, all blue and orange........

Lynda and sean came round to our place for tea, I made dips and a huge spag bol yum! Lynda had bought me an ice cream cake. Now ice cream cakes for your birthday are quite a normal thing in this part of the world, I had never even heard of them! It was a bright green freddo frog one and was very tasty! Thank you Lynda. It was all in all a fab day, Ste had bought me my favourite flowers and decorated the front room with balloons and a 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' banner.............he is one in a million!

This was supposed to be a small blog oooppssssss, enjoy the photos!

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Photos

Rotto
From A "High" point on the island

Rottnest
Looks Lovely, but when 30 or 40 Sandflies are chasing you around you soon forget your surroundings

Rottnest
and Dharma Initative Accomodation

Hail the bus Becky!
Bex Trying to Hitch A Ride at a rather remote bus stop

Biking Around
We had a Leisurely ride around the island on Beckys Birthday!

Lighthouse On The Island
Rottnest

Rottnest
Becky Reflecting on a hard days cycling

Happy Birthday!
In our Pad

Birthday
Lyndas Ice Cream Cake

Rottnest
Rottnest Island