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Published: March 11th 2007
Sunset
Sunset from City BeachBeach Bikes, Rottnest Island, Busselton Jetty, and a glass of wine
As our adventures moved on, Perth and the western coast continued to amaze me. Our plans each day were filled with wonderful sights of the coast, energetic bike rides to popular beaches, and some wildlife that made you want to take it home and name it hoppy.
My father, uncle, and I woke up one morning to ride some bikes on a hefty 26km round trip path up the costal beaches to the local aquarium for some breakfast and coffee. This beach ride reminded me of the paths in California, up and down Hermosa and Redondo Beach, difference being, the water was clear and sparkling with it's typical and inviting greenish blue colors. The crowds were already out in full force for a Lifeguard competition and a boat fair. After another iced coffee afternoon and much needed dip in the pool, we finished the night off with the traditional barbie of meats and wine with friends and family. I also managed to beat my cousin Darcy's High Score on his James Bond Goldeneye pinball machine, but as he later informed me, wasn't truly the high score as
Rottnest Island and Large Pelican
Large Pelican that didn't want to move. the machine resets every 6 months.
On Sunday, I had the treat of playing tennis on Real Grass courts, something I've wanted to do for many years. We had a rousing game of doubles with my aunt and uncle, and even moved over to a synthetic court so I could compare these unfamiliar surfaces. Truly amazing how the slow the ball moves on grass and how spongy the ground feels, which would do wonders for my knees if I was playing back home as much as I wished I could. After many games, and different combinations, we again headed home for, yep you guessed it, a dip in their lovely pool. This relaxing pool routine definitely spoiled me, which was something I missed dearly while tromping through the 40 C outback.
Rottnest Island Across the Indian Ocean from my relatives house, you could see the faint sight of an island with a windmill, 2 lighthouses, and every once in a while an unusual mirage making the island look 2 stories tall.
Rottnest island was our next destination for another scenic bike ride, some snorkeling, and an introduction to a new species of marsupial that I'd never seen or
Quokka
A Cute Quokka even heard of. Rottnest Island is Dutch for "rats nest." Rottnest is home of some 10,000 little marsupial creatures called Quokkas that resemble something between a Kangaroo and a Rat. The Dutch first landed there thinking that the island was infested with cat sized rats, hence naming it Rottnest. Since then, it has become a touristy spot for bike riding, overnight resort relaxation, and amazing beaches and bays for snorkeling.
We headed over in the morning and jumped on our bikes. The island was fairly flat, but had a few small hills challenging us on our circumfrancing bike tour. The ocean water was so clear here that the corals and colors of the bays made you want to take 50 pictures of exactly the same thing. Around every corner came another photogenic area that made us stop and grab our cameras. After 10 stops, I had to start limiting my photos as they were blending into the same green and blue beauty that was surrounding the entire island. We finally stopped at a wonderful little bay called Little Salmon. We put on our snorkel gear and jumped in. The water was so refreshing and cooled us off quickly after
Quokka high 5
My aunt fed it water, feeding it food is not allowed. only a few kilometers of riding. This snorkeling spot also had a great laid out path where you could travel around the reef and then skin dive underwater and hold onto handles of a heavy rock anchor and read some specifics of the area or the local aquatic wildlife, then resurface for air. It definitely had some great fish and wonderful information that made it more interesting then just, ooh, there's another fish. We then continued around the island while stopping to see the a few Quokkas. My aunt even fed one some water, not pleasing my uncle as these are wild creatures and may have fleas or other diseases. But I had to admit, they were very cute, and funny little things when you saw them in motion that made you want to take one home as a pet. After a nice lunch at Dome and watching a peacock walk in and out of the restaurant like it was an everyday occurance, we took a few more photos of the area and headed home.
That night I entered a Western Australia Poker League tournament with a friend of Kelly's, but unfortunately got rivered on my full house, being
Quokka eat
This one was sleeping in the main town near the markets. beaten out by a larger full house. Even though I only made it halfway through the 80 players, it was good to hang out with Kelly and have some beers, as we had never really done this due to the fact that the last time I saw Kelly was when she was 14. I enjoyed the talks and learning how things had gone over the past 7 years. She's had some great experiences, lived in Peru, traveled the world, has a nice boyfriend, and become a very intelligent young woman. Thanks again Kell for showing me around and I hope to hang out again soon!!
Canal Rocks, Busselton, and Margaret River After a morning of Crumpets, small round muffins that are a cross between an English Muffin and a pancake, we headed down to south to see the western coasts wine country, Margaret River. After a drive through Bunbury, we stopped at Busselton, which hosts one of the worlds longest wooden jettys. This 1.8km long structure, train tracks and all, looked nothing like what I expected. I assumed it wasn't going to be much more then a long dock, but once there, you can see it stretch off
Rottnest Boats
Just another lovely bay at Rottnest into the distance as far as the eye can see. This emensely long jetty spanned out into the water and appeared to conclude at a small structure, which housed a 60ft deep aquarium. We paid our entry fees and started the hike. After 8 minutes and only halfway there, it definitely appeared that building the train tracks on the pier was a good idea, but unfortunately to us, was not operational that day. Finally at the end, we entered this worthwhile structure that appeared no larger then a octagonal shaped living room. As we decsended down, the aqaurium started to span 4 floors deep. Once underwater you walked down flights of stairs to certain levels looking out into the water at 100 year old coral, thousands of fish, an old anchor, all while listening to a very informative speech by a tour guide. This tour, at $20, was well worth it and more beautiful then I expected. The reds, blues, yellows, and oranges in the live moving coral were amazing. After 45 minutes of jaw dropping observation underwater, we started our hike back to the car, minus 1 blown off hat.
We settled into our nice resort at Canal
Rottnest Bay
The colors in these bays were beautiful. Rocks beach and ate at the Yallingup hotel. We had a wonderful meal of wine, Pork Belly, Meat Pie, and Creme Brulee. The food was amazing, but the service was a little slow. This was quickly forgotten as we got back to our hotel to find 4 grazing kangaroos on our front lawn, one of them carrying a joey in her pouch. It feels so strange to see these foreign creatures 5 ft away just eating grass and then gracefully hoping away, making you recite "Boing, Boing" every time they land.
The next day we got up early to start our long day of drinking wine in Margaret River, the largest wine country of Western Australia. We started the day off right, with seeing dolphins in the bay across from our hotel, walking around some amazing canal rocks on the water, and eating at Gallingup for the best homemade blackberry, strawberry, and chocolate muffin at Lamont Wine. After a few sips of wine, we headed out to some more vineyards to try the local grapes. Laurence vineyard was nice with a new facility, wonderful olive tree entrance, and an interesting wine glass chandelier. Although the wine wasn't very appealing,
Rottnest Waters
No words needed it was still a nice start in a nice location overlooking a fountain themed pond with a statue of a diver. Next was our trip down to Voyager where our lunch reservation was waiting. This huge vineyard seemed to be something directly out of Australian Napa Valley book, complete with an 45ft Australian flag waving above the entrance. The expensively small lunch was very tasty, and we can now say we've tried Pembleton Marrons, a small lobster. The Semillion Sauvignon Blanc was more then satisfactory and after a walk through the shop, we headed off for the town of Margaret River to do some shopping. After the much anticpated t-shirt purchse for my mom, my dad, aunt and I got some Ice cream at a popular Simmo's Ice Cream shop. We started to drive home, but felt we should stop at one more location and found a local vineyard called Beckett's Winery. This was by far the best small town, local feel vineyard, and exactly what we were looking for. Great wine, no crowds, no fee's, and a family owned establishment. After some nice conversation with the owners wife, my dad purchased some wine, we got free pens, and went
off on a satisfied ending experience in Margaret River. On our way home we got lucky again and stopped to enjoy about 50 windsufers south of Perth hitting wave jumps, making speedy tacks, and screaming across the ocean shore like it was a live ESPN sports coverage.
We finished our night off with a great Thai dinner, some scrabble, and our final goodbyes. We packed up our things ready for the flights out the next day. Our 10 days in Perth flew by due to the wonderful local sights, great hospitality of my aunt and uncle, entertaining nights with my cousin Kelly, and the great relaxed feel that I expect from Australia and it's locals. The next day we took a nice swim in the ocean and got things ready for my flight to Adelaide and my dad's 23 hour flight to Denver. My dad opted to take the "Direct" flight from Perth to Melbourne, to Los Angeles, to Denver totallying 22 hours on the plane and at least 8 hours layover time in the airports. I was sad to leave, but I now know what Perth has to offer and that I'll definitely be back.
Thank you to my dad for the amazing 2 weeks of traveling and again a thousand Thanks to Gin, John, and Kelly for everything!!!
Coming Next, Adelaide and Central Australia...
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