Rotto

We took a ferry trip across from Perth to Rottnest Island (known as ‘Rotto’ to the locals). Rotto has a lot of beautiful sandy beaches and clear blue sea. It is called Rottnest, which means ‘rat’s nest’ on account of the very strange animals called quokkas which live there. They are like oversized bouncing rats. When we saw the first one, we were very excited and had to take some long range photos with the zoom. Then we saw one that we could get fairly close to, and took some photos of that one. When we sat down for our picnic lunch, another one came right up to us - clearly not afraid of humans - begging us for food. And when we left the island, one was standing upright, half-cut, on the ferry boardwalk. So they are fairly numerous and very tame.

I managed to get awarded the first, and so far only, ‘muppet of the tour’ award. Just after I’d been trying my best to snorkel in the clear blue sea, I got out, got changed and was searching through my bag for my sunglasses. After about five minutes’ searching, Paul and Pie asked me what I was looking for. “Have you got two pairs of sunglasses?” Pie asked. “No, just the one,” I replied. “You’re wearing them,” came the retort. Oops.

After we’d exhausted ourselves with the sun, sea and sand, we caught the ferry back to Fremantle (‘Freo’ to the locals, who appear to like their abbreviations). Freo is an attractive small town just south of Perth, which underwent a renovation when the Aussies won the America’s Cup for sailing a few years ago. The fish and chips there come highly recommended, and the chilli mussels were good too.