The Quokkas of Rottnest Island , Perth Australia 🦘

The Noongar peoples have been living in the Rottnest Island area for over 40,000 years. The story of how the land once extended past Rottnest but had been inundated by the sea is one of the oldest oral traditions in human history .  A prison was built for Aboriginal males on Rottnest Island and it's a sad story of hundreds dying in the approximate 100 year span of the life of the prison.  There are too many similarities between Canada and Australia, with its original peoples and the treatment from Europeans. First Nations people of Canada and in Australia they're called Aboriginal peoples of Australia have finally been recognized. 

This is a really cool statue shaped like a whale and inside the body is the story of the Noongar men and boys who suffered and died here on Rottnest.

It was our chance to get to Rottnest and there are two ways by boat either from Perth or Fremantle.  The Perth way takes you for a tour up the Swan River which is a separate pricey tour so we chose the Perth trip.

We had a 9:30 departure with Rottnest Express, we purchased the premium because it was a direct trip to the Island.

We sailed down the Swan River which is quite twisty for approximately 1/2 hour which was quite interesting because the captain narrated different things about the area and buildings that we were seeing and different information about the Swan River. For example, the color of the Swan River is a deep brown due to the staining from the Melaleuca leaves and trees which are endemic to Australia. 

The coolest part of the boat trip was that we were allowed up onto the outer front deck of the boat.  Right away I had spotted a Bottlenose Dolphin to the left and he quickly made his way under the boat and to the front to play under the boat and ride the waves or ride the pull of the boat. I'm not exactly sure but definitely playing and then they would come back out and do a little jump and then go back under and they followed us for about 10 minutes.  I had a great video of it but I was so excited to see dolphins, I love dolphins that I accidentally did not push the record button, dah.

Once we hit the mouth of the river and past the Fremantle area, it's approximately a half an hour to the island and open ocean where it did get a little bit rougher and the captain picked up the speed of the boat. 

This boat carried roughly 100 people but because it was an extra $20 return for the premium, many people don't choose this but it was nice just because it was really uncrowded and there were drinks and food served.  This round trip cruise with the entrance into Rottness Island Park was 319 Australia for two people which we purchased online. That's pricey for us because we usually do free things but I was on a quest to experience the lovable Quokka. The Quokka is endemic to this Island and they are an endangered marsupial.

They really are the cutest little marsupials on the planet when looked at up close.  They do resemble a Kangaroo Rat and in the 1800s some Dutch dude called the island a 'rat nest' because he thought they were rats. This somehow morphed into Rottnest.  Quokkas are nothing like rats.  They don't fear people and they don't have any natural predators.  They are very sweet.

We also wanted to see the scenery which is supposed to be quite breathtaking out on Rottnest Island and take in some biking.

Well we were not disappointed. The scenery was breathtaking with tons of colors of turquoise waters and little islands to look at and tons of anchored boats.  

You can see the Perth skyline from Rottnest

The boat ride over was fabulous and then we went and queued for a bike rental from the only bike rental on the island called Pedal and Flipper.  The bikes cost us 32 Aussie each for the day.  If I would have known I would have rented online but we stood in line for about 45 minutes and we finally received our bikes.  They are all cruiser style bikes which are more comfortable to ride.  We started off on our journey and lo and behold we saw a Quokka right away.  I mean eagle eye Darren spotted a Quokka right away.  This little dude was not remotely interested in meeting us or taking selfies so we continued on our way. 

No one told us that this bike ride around the island was up and down up and down up and down tons of hills.  Thank goodness we had cruiser bikes with speeds that we could adjust up and down continuously, not going to lie in 30 + heat it was not easy.

The views were top notch with different colors of turquoise waters and anchored boats anchoring in the water just like the brochures said.

Girl swimming, unfortunately we did not have enough time to swim because we chose to bike around the island instead.

Lots of bicycles on Rottnest

There are a multitude of bays on this tiny Island and it's surrounded by white sand beaches and turquoise waters, I would have loved to swim and even brought my bathing suit but we unfortunately did not have enough time.

Stranded tour guide that we stopped to talk to.  She lost her phone and was waiting for the bus on Rottnest

When you're biking, the asphalt is very hot and I felt like I was being sauteed for the first 2/3 of the bike ride and then eventually on the 3.4 km stretch to West End it thankfully got breezier, praise Jesus.  Not going to lie, the whole loop of the island is very strenuous and challenging for a 60 plus person, but we are very glad that we did it. 

There were numerous hills to climb but once you got to the top then you went all out to the bottom and it felt good at top speeds.  A couple of times the hills were steep enough that I actually braked because I'm not an avid bike rider and speeds do scare me. 

My goal was to get to West End the farthest point because I wanted to see the Fur Seals.  Much to my disappointment, there were only two Fur Seals to see on the rocks.  Disappointed! 

The two Fur Seals that together look like a big BM.

I was imagining it would be similar to when we were in Galapagos Islands when we saw hundreds of seals playing in the waves. Not so much but stick with me it did pay off when Eagle Eye spotted the dolphins which ended up being the highlight of West End.  There were probably 5 dolphins and they were surfing and playing in the waves and continually surfacing and probably feeding as well. 

We were on a bit of a time crunch. It did take quite a bit of time to get to West End and we had to be back to drop off our bike by 3:00.  

Resting at West End with a beautiful metal screen behind us.

We were running out of water and we missed the first refill station and we did catch it on the way back to gratefully fill our water bottl a back up. We literally had to winch up the water trailer to help drain the water to one end so that we could get three bottles of water to see us through the last 8 km back to Thompson Bay or to the main Port of Rottnest Island. 

The North end of the island route is less traveled and there was one couple that had stopped to take selfies with a Quokka.  They were giving it water which you are not supposed to do and it is against the law to feed them or touch them   It just looked wrong and felt wrong.  We did not stop.  My whole point of going on this Island tour was to see the Quokkas and we did see the odd Quoka here and there but they weren't interested in making friends. 

We continued along the route and I was energized by all the water that I had drank. Darren's knee was causing him some pain. Many of the times he walked up the hills while I was in the highest gear going up the hills on my bike to make it easier to climb or bike up the hills.

Darren came to a sudden stop about 2 km away from Thompson Bay and I pedaled back and realized that he had spotted a Quokka.  I took some pictures but this little dude was not interested in us so we left him alone. 

He actually was falling asleep and I did not want to disturb him or her.

We continued on and got into town and got off our bikes and walked them back to the rental place and dropped them off.  

We began walking towards the restaurants and  lo and behold - a Quokka. He/She was just sitting there minding their own business and I thought okay I'll try again.  This little dude didn't mind taking some selfies and he or she really liked the smell of my phone so he or she was ripe for taking some photos. I was pretty pumped about that because I did want to do this because they do advertise a lot about selfie- loving Quokkas, but that's actually b******* they're not selfi loving Quokkas.  They are wild animals that don't mind sharing their space with you.  We did not touch this little guy, we did not follow him or her. We just took some selfies and left respectfully,  Mission accomplished!!

We had about 45 minutes left to sit down and have a drink.  Darren picked a restaurant and I ordered a beautiful glass of Sav Blanc and enjoyed that while he had his Coke.  

We walked back to the pier to board our premium ride, but they were not ready yet.  Darren gets a bit antsy and we were there 20 minutes early so I had some time to go and take some more photos and you can actually see the city of Perth in the distance which must have made it harder for the prisoners working on that island.

It was an exhausting trip of 22 km bike ride which I'm not much of a biker and when I did the conversion on a bike ride in kilometers to steps, it was equivalent to 31,000 steps.  Plus, we walked approximately 12,000 steps as well that day.   That's a new record for me over 43,000 steps in one day.  I was kind of feeling like Wonder Woman but exhausted like an old lady. 

We found some very comfortable chairs on Rottnest Express to die into. Too bad that they did not recline because I would most likely have flaked right out.  We had a 1.5-hour trip back to Perth, up the Swan River and then we had a 15 minute walk back uphill to the Westin Perth. I was not looking forward to the walk uphill but very much looking forward to enjoying the complimentary drinks and appetizers at the lounge at the Westin once we conquered that hill.