On Friday it was forecasted to get over 30 degrees Celsius again, so I booked the ferry to get to the holiday island of Perth: Rottnest Island! At 8am in the morning I arrived at the Barrack Street Jetty to the ferry of Rottnest Express.
But because boarding wasn't opened yet and I was so happy to have this camera, I took some quick pictures of the Bell Tower and the skyline of Perth.
As soon as I entered the boat I made it directly to the upper deck to have a good view during the cruise on the river and over to the island.
It was a perfect morning, very calm water, blue sky and a slight breeze. The cruise along the river to Fremantle took nearly an hour and we saw lots of buildings, boats and even two dolphins. YEAH!
This is the Maritime Museum in Fremantle. We stopped there to take on some more passengers with their luggage and then headed for the half hour stretch to the island.
The island luckily is in the middle of some tropical water stream (Leeuwin Current). This makes the environment around the island perfect for lots of fishes and wildlife. The crystal-clear water also makes it perfect for snorkeling and diving.
On board I met Lucy a British girl who is on holidays in Australia and luckily had also booked the Adventure Tour like me. Another German girl Melanie had other plans but we exchanged phone numbers and I hope to meet her later again. This is the speedboat we went on. The first four rows are called "The rollercoaster seats". Guess where we sat? :-)
We were in row number three :-) Not the best view directly in front of me with this big guy sitting there but in the end it didn't matter.
I forgot the name of this guy but he was the commentar during the tour. He was really funny and explained a lot about the nature, the wildlife, the island and the boat. And then the journey started! WUHU!
During the stops we were allowed to stand up. But we had to make sure to step to the side we are sitting on to avoid having all people on one side of the boat. As I was sitting in the middle I could change from one side to the other. Clever me!
We stopped next to two guys who just took in their clayfish-trap. There was a little shark in there and they released it (apparently they don't taste very good anyway).
This is Lucy! She is such a lovely and chatty woman. Unfortunately she is already flying back to the UK on Monday after having been to Australia and New Zealand for the last three months.
Then we did a very long stop to spot these bottlenosed dolphins playing in the waves.
Very close-by is the breeding colony of New Zealand Fur Seals. I already saw them on Kangaroo Island but it is still nice to see them again. One older seal was hiding in the water while we observed the other seals cool down.
Then two juveniles started a fight right next to the cave of the older seal. He got out, spoke a few firm words and went into the water to stop the noise. Funny!
Our next stop in this nice bay was to see this nest of Ospreys. A sort of eagles or hawks. In this bay the water was so clear you could look down the full four meters to the ground.
On the limestone cliffs nearby I had to use the full 24x zoom to catch this picture of an osprey. Another one was flying away.
On a small little island we also spotted one Australian Sea lion. Also nice to see one again but on Kangaroo Island I saw about 40 of them lying around (see here: Kangaroo Island Australian sea lions).
We saw some other birds and then drove back to the start. Within 90 minutes we have circumnavigated the whole island, did some high-speed jumps and sharp turns and saw lots of wildlife. It was a great tour and we had the most perfect weather as well.
Lucy and I decided to go into the little town center to grab some lunch. This might look like a rat and that's actually the reason why the island was originally named Rottinest Island by an Dutch explorer. The Quokkas look like big fat rats and they can be found all over the island.
After lunch we walked with the help of a nice lady from the Visitor Information center to Garden Lake and spotted two Quokkas. How cute! But apperently these are not another sort of kangaroos. No, they belong to the marsupials and are therefore more related to koalas than kangaroos.
Due to the heat (it was over 30 degrees Celsius, definitely) we decided against a further island walk and went to the most popular beach of the island: The Basin. On the way there we saw about another 10 Quokkas along the way. Nice! Here you can also have a wedding ceremony.
The water was quite cool but after a while it was absolutely lovely to swim in this clear water. We spoke to some more people who have rented snorkels for the day. At 3:30pm we made our way back to the return ferry and decided to sit in the air-conditioned main deck. Lucy went off in Fremantle as she stays with friends close to there.
Here the last impressions of the day as we arrived in Perth at 6pm to some nice golden sunlight.
That was the perfect day out I think although it might have been nice to explore the island a bit more. But accommodation is quite expensive there although the island is only like 10km wide. Well, my next stop for the next day: King's Park!
Yours Rottnest-Island-speedboat-visiting Stefanie
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Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!