Our WA Trip - Part Nine - Rottnest Island and Back Across the GAFA

Time for another WA Adventure installment!

Jen and I spent our last day in Western Australia at Rottnest Island, which is about a half hour's boat ride off the coast of Perth in the Indian Ocean. The island was named "Rottnest" by the English colonists, who mistakenly thought that the marsupials on the island were large rats. In fact, the critters are quokkas, and they're related to kangaroos. And they're so cute! More on them later. Rottnest Island was originally used as a prison site for Aboriginals who had been convicted of committing crimes, and sadly many inmates died of despair on the island, bereft of their traditional homelands and social structures. These days, however, the island is a resort/retreat, playing much the same role that the Toronto Islands do in the GTA. Jen and I caught an early ferry out so we could spend the entire day on the island.

We were a little worried about the weather as we were departing the ferry dock in Fremantle... it was cloudy and cool and not at all looking like it'd be a good day to spend on the water! Fortunately the ferry itself was totally enclosed, so we didn't completely freeze on the way over. The ferry was actually pretty cool. It was like a cross between a catamaran (it was double-hulled) and a speedboat. And speed it did! The waves on the open ocean were pretty big and the boat bounced and sloshed its way across to Rottnest. Watching the spray dribbling down the outsides of the windows, I was glad that we were inside the boat for the ride!

We disembarked at the jetty at Thompson Beach and headed straight for the information centre to figure out where to go next. Rottnest is pretty big... about 12kms from end to end, so we knew there was no way we'd make it around the island by walking alone. There was a shuttle bus that did regular routes around the island, so we bought day trip tickets. The next stop was the surf shop so I could rent a mask and snorkel (although I got a set myself for Christmas, I stupidly didn't bring them with me on the WA trip. At least I had my new flippers!). Jen and I had hauled our boogie boards with us too, in the hopes that we'd find a surf beach. The only little glitch at the start of the day was when we realized that there would be nowhere on the island's many beaches to safely leave things like our passports and wallets, while we went snorkeling. Fortunately there were lockers at the ferry landing, so we locked all our valuables away. So sadly, I have no photos of Rottnest, 'cause the camera was locked away too. Ah well! That's what postcards are for.

So with no further ado we hopped on the bus and headed for our first destination, Little Salmon Bay. We'd learned that there was a - get this - underwater nature trail here, for snorkelers! How cool is that? So we strapped on our gear and waded into the water (screeching for the first bit 'cause it doesn't seem to mater where we go, the ocean is blasted cold!). By this time the sun had come out and the day was slowly warming up. We quickly found the first marker, which was a bronze plaque set into a concrete on the ocean floor. There were handles bolted to the sides of the plaque so you could dive down and hold on while you read it. So that's what we did! We followed the trail of plaques all around the bay, reading about the various underwater habitats represented, and seeing lots of different fish. It was great. I could happily snorkel all day, every day, if the opportunity presented itself!

As much fun as the snorkeling was, we had to be careful we didn't swim out too far away from the shore, in case we got too tired to be able to swim back again. It's deceptive how far you can swim with flippers on! And of course we tried our best to stick together, but that proved to be a bit of a challenge because all the clothes I wear when I swim (including my flippers) are black! Jen kept complaining that I was hard to spot in the water if I was any distance away. Jen, fortunately, was easy to spot, because her swimming flippers are bright orange. Anyway, we eventually got cold enough that we got out of the water, dried off, ate lunch, and spent some time catching some rays on the beach in an effort to warm up.

Now, I'd been wondering about the snakes here in Australia. The way some of my books read, you'd think there was a snake under every rock and in every lawn. But up until our visit to Rottnest, we hadn't seen one. As we were sitting on the beach enjoying the sunshine, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned, I discovered that it was a snake - and it was heading straight for where Jen was snoozing! So I very calmly told her "Jen, you need to roll to your right, there's a snake coming your way." And she did! Calmly! I have no idea what sort of snake it was - it was about 2 feet long, slender, and dark brown or black. I didn't see its underbelly. But in a land where so many critters are venomous, why take chances? We both calmly got up and gave the snake a wide berth. By this time, other folks around us were aware that something was going on, and getting up, too. The snake seemed inclined to slither its way right across the beach, through a sizable crowd of people, and that was just asking for trouble. So we waved our towels and shoes (not with feet in them!) in front of the snake's nose (but not too close!) and got it to change direction and head back into the dunes. Phew!

We headed back into the water shortly thereafter to explore a part of the bay that we hadn't in the morning. This turned out to be even better snorkeling! The water was deeper (probably about 20 feet) and there was all this kelp. We saw some huge fish (3ft long or more) here which I later ID'd as bream. Again, it was totally great. But we'd promised ourselves that we would also try to do some boogie boarding, since this would be our last opportunity in WA and we hadn't yet used our boards on this coast. So all too soon we were back out of the water and on the bus, looking for a surf beach.

I guess that good surfing days don't happen at the same time as good snorkeling days. Although there were several surf beaches marked on our map of the island, there were no waves at any of them. So reluctantly we stayed on the bus and kept hoping to find something better. No luck. We eventually got off the bus at The Basin, the closest snorkeling beach to the main ferry jetty, where we snorkeled for another hour or so. Here the fish and environment were totally different again. There were these great underwater rock stacks, arches, and caverns where the fish could hide. I didn't want to get out of the water.

In fact, we almost missed our ferry back to the mainland! We had to walk from The Basin back to the ferry, and it was further than it looked. Then, along our way, we finally saw one of the island's famous quokkas, so we went over to get a closer look. The quokkas are really tame, and this one hopped right up to my outstretched hand and sniffed me! Apparently I wasn't all that interesting (read: I had no food) so it quickly hopped away again, but still. So cute! We also stopped to grab some french fries before heading out to the ferry... which I was sure was leaving at 4:45... only to find out that it was leaving at 4:30 and we were the last passengers on board! Yikes!

When we got back to Pat and Rob's, we did one last load of laundry, and then presented our Perth hosts with their thank-you presents - some goodies we'd brought from Canada and a new box of laundry soap!

We caught the Indian Pacific back to Adelaide on January 20th. Pat and Rob were kind enough to drive us back to the train station and see us safely on our way. I must admit, both Jen and I weren't really looking forward to the ride back, considering how miserable and uncomfortable the ride out was. But it appeared that our luck was changing at last. This train was only about half the length of the one we'd come out on, and there was only one car of day-nighter seats, instead of two. This meant that there would be half as many of us vying for space in the lounge car. Also, the seats in this train were a little bit wider and a LOT more comfortable, and had a lot more leg room. Hooray!

The train stopped in Kalgoorlie again on its way to the Nullarbor, even later at night than it did when we were coming west. This time 'round, we took the whistle stop coach tour. It was COLD. Remembering that the last time we passed through Kalgoorlie, it had been somewhere around 38C at 10pm, this time it was only 25C, with a sharp cold wind. That's the coldest temperature we'd experienced in three weeks, and we felt it (all the while thinking how ridiculous it was that we needed our fleeces at 25C)! The tour was certainly very informative - as we trundled through the sleeping town, the coach driver educated us on various aspects of the town's history and architecture. However he had a very creepy, uber-stereotypical tour operator voice which kept distracting us from his actual words.

The highlight of the tour was stopping at the Super Pit, which is the largest open-pit gold mine in the world. Currently the pit is about 3km long, 1km wide, and over 400m deep. The picture I've linked to here is terrible, but remember I was shooting it at almost midnight! It was pretty incredible looking down into it, and knowing that the teeny little trucks I was seeing were in reality huge mining trucks as large as a house. Kinda put things in perspective, I guess you could say!

The... ah... lowlight (?) of the tour was near the end, when the bus drove down Hay Street. This section of Kalgoorlie is famous for its brothels. And apparently was only half a block away from where Jen and I had gone exploring on our outbound trip! Ha ha! The tour guide went into quite a lot of detail on the history of the brothels in Kalgoorlie, and pointed out that one of the establishments actually does brothel tours every afternoon, where you can go in and learn... um... first-hand... what goes on in there. Apparently the brothels are legal, but prostitution is not. So as long as the... um... business is conducted inside the buildings, everything is fine. Oh, and each establishment must also run a legit business of some sort, so they're all bars as well (and popular ones, too!).

Once we were back on the train, we settled down to sleep. The chairs were comfy enough that we were both able to sleep sitting up, instead of contorted into all sorts of strange positions like we'd tried on the way out. Thank goodness!!

The 21st passed pretty uneventfully, as we spent the entire day on the train. Our "battle plan", as it were, was to spend as much time as we physically could in the lounge car instead of in our seats. At least in the lounge there were tables, and places to prop our feet up, and better windows to see out of, and more comfy chairs. So that's where we stayed. For pretty much the entire day. We stretched our legs at Cook when the train stopped to refuel, and realized that there were no flies! How strange... why are there no flies in Cook when they appear to be absolutely everywhere else in this land?

Jen had discovered the day before that she'd burned the back sides of her calf muscles quite nicely when we went snorkeling. Yes, she did put on sunscreen. She had to spend a good portion of the train ride to Adelaide applying copious amounts of aloe vera gel to her legs. This meant that, by the end of our second day on the train, her legs had taken on a distinctively green (and mouldy) appearance. Once again - poor Jen!

The train ride back had its moments, too. There were a number of other 'regulars' who camped out in the lounge car with us for most of the trip. One lady, I swear, didn't stop talking AT ALL. On the other hand, eavesdropping on her conversations was interesting. I'm pretty sure she rode the train across the country on a regular basis. At one point while we were in the Nullarbor she was remarking to her friends that when she'd passed through in December, it was bucketing down rain and the enitre plain was flooded - they couldn't even gte off the train at Cook - and that this was the greenest she'd ever seen the Nullarbor! You've seen my pictures - does this look green to you? Looking out over that bleak landscape, I was having a hard time reconciling the idea that I was seeing a LUSH and GREEN Nullarbor. What in heavens name did the place look like when it was truly dry? The train also stopped at one point in the middle of absolutely nowhere on the Nullarbor to drop somebody off. As in, we watched the guy step off the train, get into a waiting ute with a friend, and drive off across the plain - not that there was a road or landmarks or anything. I assume they were off to work at a sheep station or something.

And so we passed our last night on the train, secure in the knowledge that we'd be pulling into Adelaide around 7:30 the next morning, and we'd have the whole day to explore the town and maybe even get back to the beach...