Rottnest Island - 14/02/06

Situated 18 km's from the mainland of Perth, the beaches around Rottenest Island ("Rotto" to the locals) are like paradise. The day I went it was 39 degrees and the only real way to see the island is by bike as cars aren't allowed. The bike I hired to get around the 25km sized island was firstly running without functional breaks or the ability to change gear easily. I decided to set off and explore the whole island before I got settled in one particular spot, hating the idea of not knowing what was just round the corner, so off I buzzed overtaking every other cyclist on the road, however I realised quite quickly that it was alot larger to get around than I had anticipated and coupled with the 39 degree heat every slight hill in the road soon felt like the alps. Stopping off on my way round there are just bay after bay of pristine white sand and blue water beaches, as you can see from the photos. I also saw a few decent waves also just off the south of the island . Once I had made it the entire way round, I then decided to check out the middle of the island, which was nothing on the beaches so I went back to find one to chill on. This basically meant that by the end of the day when I caught the ferry back to Fremantle, I had effectively cycled the entire island twice - most people don't make it round once - difficulty walking was experienced the next day, but I slept well that night! Apart from the beaches the island is home to a unique species the "Quokka" which is a big mouse/rat thing and they can grow to be surprisingly massive. Cycling along I spotted a whole bunch of them so stopped to get a photo. Instead of me going to them, this Quokka starts coming towards me, it came so close to me that I thought it was going to start knoring at my leg so I jumped off my bike and it just kept following me. After I put my backpack down it started sniffing at obviously wanting food. It then tried to eat my Ipod headphones. They are harmless and so tame and I got a couple of photos of it, they are really strange animals and totally unique to the island. I was laughing at a story Wozza later told me about when he was over there a couple of years back where they set up a row of cups, each with a different drink in. One with fizzy drink, one with water, one with beer, etc and one with Passion Pop (a cheap Australian sparkling wine that tastes of passion fruit, think Babysham and White Lightning. Think drink to get drunk not for its "vintage"). Anyway the Quokka went for the Passion Pop each time getting the cup stuck on its head in the process.

A week later, when I was down south of Perth, was the Rottnest Open Water Swim, which is the largest open water swim in the world. Basically it involves a bunch of nutters swimming from Cottesloe beach, Perth to Rottnest Island. Conditions were apparently really stormy this year and a load of people ended up in hospital as they couldn't make the 5 - 6 hours to swim!