Finally just finished my second final, so I have time for a post! This happened a few weeks ago- I went to Rottnest Island, about half an hour off the coast of Freo by ferry, with a bunch of my friends. No cars are allowed on the island and its very small, so we all rented bikes and decided to explore. Rottnest means “rats nest” in Dutch, for these cute little guys, the quokkas.
They’re a marsupial found in only a few places in the world, and they’re habituated to humans and really friendly! They’re like a mixture between a rat and a kangaroo- they actually have a pouch for their young too. We didn’t see any with babies but I saw a picture on a postcard once, and its really strange to see the tiny head poking out! There are only a few shops on the island and a few camp areas to stay. All of the shops had small quokka blocking doors. It looks like it would be so peaceful to live there, but pretty much the only people who do are a few who work in the shops or at the campgrounds. There’s not much else besides that and tons of small beaches.
Here is the first beach we went to, my favourite one. It was so beautiful.
A shipwreck we spotted at the very beginning of the day.
We stopped at a lighthouse and talked to this older volunteer, who was actually excited to talk to us because he’s going on a five-week trip throughout the US. He was so nice.
We found a lot of cuttle bone washed up on the beach…one even had “help” ingrained in it. So we made our own.
After we returned our bikes around 3:30, we went back and had some ice cream while waiting for the ferry. They had some red bull ice cream we could try…it tasted exactly like it.
Overall it was an amazing day, so beautiful. And I love those quokkas! I’m really going to miss Freo.
Aussie slang- (running low)
Fruity Lexia- box/bag of wine. also known as goon.
Daggies- granny panties (only found this out through a commercial that plays all the time)
