My day trip to this vacation hot spot for Western Australians started early, early in the morning of Wednesday, 13 May. Actually, I woke up an hour earlier than I wanted – thinking my dim watch said it was 5:45 – not 4:45! So, after another hour of not quite sleep (but not up and about either) I had breakfast, made a lunch, and dressed in my swimmers. I had thought the ferry left at 8, so I rushed down the not so busy streets to reach the docks; only to find out that the ferry left at 8:45. I sat in the sun and watched a shag dry its wings while I waited for departure. My hostel roommate had suggested that catching the ferry from the Fremantle port was faster and more entertaining “there is nothing to see down the river”. However, I am more than pleased to have included the Swan River in my journey to the island. We were told what bits of the town we were seeing as we passed by – the university, kings park, the millionaire strip from the 80s, the millionaire strip for today, what house recently sold for 20 million, which house was on the market for 85 million….you know, a typical tour down a river :-) I didn’t bother taking pictures on our way down– I hid out in the cabin having a look, knowing that I could get my snaps in on the way back upriver, not wanting to get a head start on my dose of sunshine about to come.
Rottnest Island is a massive holiday spot for Western Australians – weather it is for a day or a week. There are several tour busses that run around the islands, but that’s nearly the only automotives that you will see on the roads – besides the few ranger/science vehicles. Everyone else uses a bicycle or walks. I picked up my rented bicycle from the jetty, headed to the information center, and then set off. I was told it took about 4 hours to cycle all the way around the island, but I decided to see how long it took me to get to my snorkel destination and go from there. Ha – it only took me 15 minutes to make it to the Parker Point snorkel trail! The coastal journey was absolutely beautiful. Clear blue/green water with patches of dark blue where the sea grass grew. While most of the shorelines are rocky and covered in scrub, Rottnest Island is renowned for its sandy coves and bays. It’s also known for great surf. I, however, was just interested in seeing my first Australian fishes (yes – fishes is the correct term: plural fish = fish when it is of the same species, but = fishes when it is covering fish of many species).
It was still fairly early in the morning (11 I think?), but the cycling had warmed me up enough to consider doing the snorkeling now rather than later. Parker point is noted for its pink coral and I didn’t want to miss it if it wasn’t found at other sites. Since it’s coming into winter here in the southern hemisphere, I was expecting pretty cold waters. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that walking into the water didn’t cause me to gasp and run back up beach. I was even more pleased when dipping my whole body into the cool water didn’t make me hyperventilate in my snorkel! I don’t own any fins, and wasn’t going to bother spending money to rent some (though I don’t think the rental clerk noticed that I hadn’t purchased that package – she had seemed to indicate to the big crate of snorkel gear when I gave her my ticket). So, I slowly swam over the sea grass beds towards the line of bouys that marked the sanctuary boundaries. I saw a few fish here and there on my way through the semi-cloudy water, but the large schools of small fish only appeared when I was near the bouys. Once in the sanctuary, it was like all the fish knew where they were supposed to be! I can’t say there were HEAPS of fish, but larger fish started appearing and weren’t terribly worried by my presence. I dove down to read the first trail marker (a plague set in concrete with 
hand holds and a white marker bouy), and scared a large striped fish with lovely red markings. Unfortunately, it hid under a rock and refused to be photographed – YES, I had remembered to not only pack my camera, but to go snorkeling with it too! LOL (laugh out loud). There really isn’t any describing an underwater scene, it’s just other worldly. I found the knobby pink coral and also some intricately convoluted coral (brain coral?). I saw several colorful fish, many black ones with blue tips at the end of their fins, quite a few bland looking ones, and a few fairly large ones. I saw long thin fishes (one all white, one with a red band on its eye), I saw parrot fish eating bits of coral (creating a small dust cloud as it broke bits off the sand floor and when they spit bits out again), and I saw a jelly fish (I even got a decent picture!). I made the slow swim back to the now “crowded” beach. I was feeling the chill of the water and my mouth was dry from the salt water my snorkel leaks. However, when I was less than 300 meters from exiting the water, I had to stop and hover in fascination. 
I knew what I was seeing wasn’t a sting ray – it’s dragon like snail head told me that much – but I didn’t know what this MASSIVE creature could be. It undulated its wide wing-like appendages to swim towards me, but before I could get my camera turned back on it had hidden its large head in the sea grass. The only pictures I have are of an ambiguous black blob. My only guess is that it was some sort of giant sea slug. But when I say massive and giant, I am NOT exaggerating. It could easily have rested on my face and wrapped it’s “wings” around my head. I reckoned that it wasn’t anything poisonous or terribly aggressive, so I did take one of its “wings” (which were floating straight up together, like a butterfly at rest) between my fingers – it had a slightly rubbery texture, but really it didn’t feel like anything; just soft!
Once out of the water I was freezing. I drank some water and considered drying off, but I opted for keeping my towel dry until I could rinse off (after all, I have to use that towel for showering too!). I packed up all my stuff and headed up the stairs, having a brief conversation with an 
Aussie about what we had seen on our snorkels. At the top of the stairs were a couple of kids with their bikes. They were giggling about something, and then I realized they were watching a quokka!! No way! Before landing on the island I had decided not to be disappointed when I didn’t see a quokka; the video played on the ferry informed us that quokkas were nocturnal and the best time to see them was early morning and night. I figured I’d have to come back on an overnight visit to glimpse the critters. However, these little things have realized that humans, generally only around during the day, are a great source of food. So, here was one being cute looking for handouts. I put my stuff down, opened my pack, and proceeded to unpack everything to get to the camera I had buried. 
Well, the quokka thought that was great! I must be ready to feed him! In fact, he must have smelled my bagel sandwich because he made a good effort to climb in my bag! LOL! Ah man, he was SO cute. I gave him some pets, which he didn’t seem to mind, as I kept him out of my bag. Finally I got most everything packed pack up – having to pick his little 3 toed foot out of the plastic bag I had brought for my wet things. Oh man, he was so, so cute! He/it was pretty soft too; slightly course hair, but not rough. I’ll tell you, if the snorkeling hadn’t made my day that certainly would have. I took more pictures and video before heading off to a shower (which made me cold all over again). When I returned to my bike, I found two quokkas! So, I had to take more pictures before pedaling off again.
Well, by the time I started biking further around the island it was nearly 1 o’clock! I’m not sure how long I was in the water snorkeling, but it must have been a while. Of course, it was a decent swim without fins. I had wondered how hard the cycling would be, since it’s been more than a year since I took the cycling classes in Idaho. While my bike gears weren’t terribly great, they at least worked; so I was able to make it up the hills without totally exhausting myself! However, it was still quite tiring – not to mention that sitting on a bike seat for too long takes its toll! I knew I needed to stop for lunch, but kept pedaling down the phenomenal coastline. I was hoping to find a nice beach from which I could watch some surfers, but I only ever saw one surfer and he just lay on his board while the waves rolled in. Eventually, I found a spot that looked like a good place to stop and look at the map (I had passed several junctions without knowing exactly where I was going). Green Island was just a bit of rock off the beach, but several snorkelers could be seen out in the water. Many more people were enjoying the sandy beach, and a quokka was hanging out hoping for bits. Looking for seclusion, I walked past the quokka, over the sand dunes (dotted with what must be quokka pooh), and made up a spot on some of the rocks in the next cove. If I stood up I could see the inland lighthouse, but when I sat down I had the view to myself. I had seen a sign, near where I parked my bicycle, that osprey bred in the area. I didn’t expect to see any, since the signage mentioned them arriving in July, so I wasn’t sure what kind o bird was sitting in the massive nest on the rocks. 
I knew it would be an osprey nest – it must have been near as tall as me, built of large branches and twigs on a rock that obviously stays fairly dry at high tide. After lunch, I had forgotten about the bird in the nest when I started walking down to the small sandy bit of beach amid the rocks. I kind of surprised myself when I took some more pictures and realized that it was definitely a bird of prey sitting in the nest! The bird flew away and I headed back to my spot to have a read. I’m not sure what the noise was that caught my attention and pulled my head out of my book, but when I looked towards the nest I saw 2 large birds flying in!! I couldn’t get my camera out (and turned on… slow thing!) in time to catch a shot of either bird landing in the nest, but I have a couple of them sitting in the nest. I didn’t want to scare them away, so I only went down towards the beach a little ways for a better photograph. Then I decided that I had better get on my if I wanted to see more of the island before catching the ferry.
It was just past 2 when I set off again, meaning I had missed all of the volunteer tours of the lighthouses, tunnels, or gun (the tunnels were dug when a massive gun was erected during WW?). So, I opted to avoid the uphill cycle and just cruise through the inland hills of the island. 
I passed several of the salt lakes, stopping to take pictures of one particularly pink lake. I guess the pink bits were the salt? Everything (including the pink crystalline bits and the bottoms of the plants on the edge) was covered in white strands. I initially thought the white strands blanketing everything was the salt, but they had a tough, fibery feel to them. Oddly enough, when I pulled a chunk of white covered pink stuff off the soggy lake bed, it came up with gold colored “roots”. So I’m not real sure what’s going on in this environment!
I continued cycling around, making my way back towards the jetty. I passed a fabulous bay loaded with yellow bouys and lined with yellow apartments. I would guess that many of the people owning boats in the Perth and Fremantle harbours anchor their boats to the yellow bouys and live in the yellow apartments during school and summer holidays. While there were only 2 or 3 boats anchored up, there were still several people enjoying the sandy horseshoe cove and its blue/green water. I continued on only to stop again at the bottom of a hill to look at some seabirds foraging at another lake. I’m not sure what they were; 
they appeared similar to the pied stilts I’d seen in NZ, but had different colorations and seemed a bit larger. I also don’t think pied stilts have a beak that bends slightly upwards at the tip? The Australian shelducks looked (and sounded) very much like the paradise shelducks of NZ though (those are the ones that were all over the paddocks, mom). Soon, I found myself back in “The Settlement”; the only place on the island where there are buildings, a windmill for 35% of the power, and water treatment facilities. I was early for the ferry departure, but they let me hand in my bike and board the vessel. While waiting on the back deck of the boat, I had a pretty good yak with a couple from the UK that had been in town for 4 weeks visiting their daughter.
I took a few pictures of Rottnest Island and some of the massive anchored ships we crossed. The funniest was when I looked to the side and saw a huge ship’s bow! At first I thought we were going to be run over, but then I realized it was anchored! LOL. 
Our ferry made two stops to unload Fremantle passengers before heading back up the Swan River. Despite the sun being right in my camera, I made a point of photographing the side of a large ship. It was from Kuwait! It wasn’t unloading oil, it was loading live sheep! LOL Upriver a bit further and after we passed the three traffic bridges the bar reopened and I headed down with my free voucher (for booking a day trip). 
I considered the wine tasting, but then decided to be good and have tea instead. The guy figured he’d give me both though – he even gave me both cake and biscuits (cookies)! Ha ha ha. So, I drank my tea, had my sugar, and then had some small tasters of two local red wines. Though the sun was setting over the ocean (and through the trees and multi-million dollar homes), the color behind the city was a lovely site. Just for the one picture of approaching the city, with all its lights on (particularly the Perth wheel), from the water was worth the ferry trip up the river.
When we disembarked, right next to the wheel and the bell tower, I realized that the bell tower was lit up too. However, it wasn’t just purple lights; it changed to blue and red too! Very pretty. I took some pictures of the bell tower and the brightly lit wheel before heading up the road and back to my hostel. I was definitely pleased with my day out!
I had my RSA (responsible service of alcohol) course yesterday (14 May; Thursday). It was an 8 hour course instructing me how to recognize an intoxicated person and what the laws of Western Australia are for licensed establishments. I was surprised at how many fines could be handed to the staff at the bar and how often law suits were won against establishments when it came to drinking misconduct and accidents. Though it made me a little more nervous about my upcoming post in a country pub, I am hopeful that I will have a good manager that isn’t too lax on the rules (I certainly can’t afford a $4000 fine!).
Today - Friday, 15 May - I met with my placement contact again. I was told WHERE I would be working and what train to book. I am in Cunderdin, a 2 hour train ride east of Perth. The "Ettamogah Pub" looks just like a cartoon! It's picture can be found on the Cunderdin wikipidia page! I've filed for my tax number and now need to buy my train passage and open my bank account. I'm not sure how I'll spend my weekend, but I think a "thriller" play may be involved tomorrow! Whoo hoo - I ship off on Sunday!! I have high hopes for this position - I am an "All rounder" which means I'll work in the bar and kitchen, as well as do some cleaning. There are already several girls working there (backpackers also) that I've been told are really nice. My room and board is provided and I should earn (after taxes I believe) over $300 weeek (possibly up to $400, but I don't want to get my hopes up). Since I'll be in the boonies, all that money should be savings! So - hopefully I'll have some good pub stories to keep you entertained through the upcoming weeks. I'll stay for at least 6 weeks, maybe 8, before taking off to snorkel with the whale sharks that are off the coast right now!!! (the link shows a picture from Ningaloo reef - which is where I'll be going, far north of Perth).
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