Rottnest Island 2019

I fulfilled my dream of visiting Perth after almost a year of working. Perth was the first city I've been to in Australia and I remembered Perth as awesome. I hoped to visit because I also had one luggage left at a friend's house. Unfortunately, the friend moved to NSW so I just chilled and relaxed while in Perth. Joel hasn't been to Perth before and he came with me this time. He wanted to see the quokkas for himself and so we decided to go to Rottnest Island.
 

From Perth, we took the Fremantle Line towards Fremantle. Although there was an option to catch a ferry from Perth city, we chose this to spend a bit of time walking in Fremantle. We went to Perth Underground at 10am and were amazed that the station was almost empty.

 

The train ride was about 45 minutes and since we were not in a hurry, we went to eat at the Famous Fish and Chips Restaurant in Fremantle while enjoying the beautiful view.

 

We then walked towards B Shed Fremantle and bought our ticket. We chose the SeaLink Rottnest Island Ferry. Not sure if there was a promotion going on but for a return boat trip for us both, we paid a total of $96. The boat trip was at 2pm and we had a lot of time to kill so we went to the Fremantle Markets which was just the opposite building and browsed through their merchandise and had some coffee.
 

When it was time to board the ferry, we were first timers so we chose the open seats at the back of the ferry. We did not know that the seat would expose us to a lot of sea water splashing, we were almost fully wet. We transferred towards the covered seats where more people were. The kids loved and screamed through most part of the ferry trip because of the big waves but me and Joel were dizzy. Finally, we arrived in Rottnest Island after the 30 minute gruelling trip.
 

We saw thousands of bikes in the island, all most probably for rent. However, we did not hire any bikes because, embarrassingly, I do not know how to bike. I was interested to do the Hop On Hop Off Bus but we arrived a little bit late to catch the last bus. So we just decided to walk where our feet would take us.

The first quokka we saw was near the bins. We were so excited and wondered why the people were just passing by it. Joel's parents told us they had difficulty looking for one when they were visiting the island a lot of years ago so we felt super lucky to find one right away.

But, just a few meters from the first one were more quokkas. They were not afraid to be surrounded with a lot of people. They were just minding their own business and eating leaves. I was amazed at how they sleep as well, they just protect their tails and put them under their feet and bow their heads.

Quokkas are said to be the happiest animals on earth. They are the smallest members of the macropods or "big foot" family which includes the kangaroos. They are nocturnal which explains why most are asleep during our visit and they are the only land mammal on Rottnest Island. Anyone caught touching a quokka on Rottnest Island will be fined $300.

People were trying to catch that famous quokka smile. Some were lying on the ground just to get the perfect selfie. I was fortunate to have one :)

There were hundreds that we saw on our short stroll. And we saw one who has clearly hurt himself because one of the fingernail was hanging from the hand. We tried to call the ranger and he said he will come soon but we have not seen him even if we stayed a few minutes just to make sure we can identify the correct quokka. Oh well, we tried our best.

We went to one of the many beaches on the island and spent minutes enjoying the sun before we returned to the port to take another boat ride.

Fortunately, this time, the boat was bigger and there wasn't much bumps.

I loved every minute of our Perth trip. The food was good and the atmosphere was not as rushed as back home. But as with all trips, we had to say goodbye and head off. Perth will always be in my heart.

Thank you for reading and 'til next blog.