Rotto Island and the Quakkas

Rottnest Island... was almost a week ago, last Tuesday.

As part of our program, the director said he would pay for our ferry ride over to the island for the day. So we get up early and make our way into the city to catch the ferry over which took about an hour, and since it was 8:30 in the morning... we were all asleep. However when I did go up on the boat deck and checked over the side of the ship you could see huge swarms and pods of jelly fish... disgusting! There were also a few dolphins that we saw swimming by so that was cool but we didn't get any really good pictures of them

Since my friends had gotten pretty badly sunburnt the day before we decided to take it easy, wear t-shirts for the day, lather in sunscreen, and ride bikes around the island. There are very few cars on the island, so bikes are the main form of transportation for everyone (including the couple hundred residents on the island). So for 20 bucks for the whole day we rented some bikes and helmets and biked around the island. We actually only made it half way because we would have died doing the whole thing... They said it would be a nice leisurely trip... WRONG. Huge hills, seemed like mountains to me while the bus was passing me huffing and puffing up the huge hills. But we did it and it was a good change from being stuck inside somewhere or just laying around. We got some gorgeous pictures that are on my photobucket account and also stopped a few different places along the way.

We first stopped to take pictures of a few different shipwrecks that had either gotten lost on the way to perth or freemantle and some that had drifted that far into the island and crashed on the rocks. Next we saw the quakkas. Quakkas can only be found on Rottnest Island (I'm pretty sure...) and they have a tail like a rat, hop like a kangaroo, a little smaller than a groundhog, and have fur that is a light bown shade and they have hair a little coarser than a rabbit. Yeh... they are kinda a mix of things to say the least, but there are pictures online. We actually got to touch them even though that is illegal. They're really friendly and kind of hop around and are all over the island and they have a pouch like a kangaroo and are nocturnal.

After the quakkas we cut through the center of the island to get a wiff of an awful odor that we found out later came from the salt lakes. When we came down the hill on our bike we saw what looked like huge purple and pink lakes of water that had crystals all around the outside. The pictures don't do it justice, the best comparison is to a game level in mariobros on nintendo in the purple and pink ice worlds.

After passing that and stopping for some water we finally took a break at a swimming area that was actually a rock/reef area we could walk out on to that was about knee deep then you could jump into crystal clear water up to about my shoulders. It was perfect! We swam for a little bit and then hopped back on the bikes and went back to town to return the bikes, meet up with the group, and take the ferry ride back.

All in all it was a fun day trip and I'd love to go again and do the other half of the island and bring my snorkeling gear for the next time!