Rottnest Island

---

On the last day before leaving Perth, we went out to Rottnest Island for the day. It's a great little island (17km long) and no cars are allowed, so it's really peaceful.

Given that we both get very bad sea sickness, we had to make a decision between getting there quick on a bumpy speedboat, or geting there slowly on a ferry. We chose the former. It was really fun, and we weren't sick (but the girl in front of me was). I got chatting to the skipper and he said he started doing the captaining of the boats over to Rottnest last September. He had a successful career in pharmaceuticals, but had a mid-life crisis, decided he needed to escape the office, trained to skipper the speed boats to Rotto, and has not looked back since. It made Jon very jealous.

There are loads of gorgeous beaches, and it's a case of trekking round till you find one to relax on. We hired bikes on arrival, so we jumped on those and cycled round the island for a few hours. There's loads to see (wildlife, coral, old artillery from miltary-outpost days), and then you just lounge on a beach at the end, before cycling back to the port.

At one point, I was cycling ahead and saw a guy coming towards me, who had stopped, got off his bike, and waved at me. I thought he must be a really friendly chap and cycled right up to him, slowed down and said a big cheery hello. He said he was astonished I had taken the risk to cycle past it! I didn't have the foggiest what he was on about, but I looked down, and very near my feet, was a poisonous Dugite snake on the road. Of course, his hand gesture was actually trying to say 'stop', and in not realising it, I had cycled right up to the snake, close to running it over. His wife was cowering behind shouting at him to 'get rid of it', the technicalities of which included throwing a stick and handfuls of sand. Not sure if that's the advised action, but it did the job, and the snake slowly curled back into the bushes on the side of the road.

---

Comments

[anna]

i heart rottnest island
i'm so jealous you guys have been to rottnest. i love that place, it's so beautiful and peaceful. great snorkelling too!! alli have to look forward to is an exam in edinburgh later this week- bah!! take care and enjoy the rest of your trip A xx