Tasmania to Tokyo – Busselton – Day 28 can be found here.
Today’s Chronicles can be found here.
Today is perhaps our most anticipated day of the trip thus far – our visit to Rottnest Island.
Frequent readers of our missives might have learned that we are fond of animals, and there are few animals that have captured our children’s hearts to the same extent as the quokka.
We considered organizing our own trip to Rottnest, but ultimately decided to go with the Silversea offering instead. It’s not cheap at US$329 per person, but does ensure that we don’t miss our ferry ride on the way over. (Or if we do, that they’ll figure out some way to make it all right in the end.)
And this might be a distinct possibility, as the ferry leaves at 10 am and we are still at the passenger terminal at 9:45 am.
No matter, though, as we have all 12 members of our group aboard the extra-large coach bus that will take us a whopping 500 metres from the passenger terminal to the ferry terminal.
We disembark and follow our guide as she leads us through the teeming crowds who are in the process of boarding the ferry and – we make it.
A SeaLink ferry in motion (Photo Credit: SeaLink)
We even manage to find seats all together. That said, I’m still not sure why they decided to cut this quite so close – would it really have hurt to leave 15 minutes earlier?
We settle in for the brief SeaLink ferry across to Rottnest, which takes roughly 30 minutes from pillar to post. Just long enough for us to enjoy a cappuccino and a chai latte, which are included as part of our tour – as are the freezies that they pass out to the kids (and the young at heart).
The wide range of beverages – and a water cooler wearing a zodiac vest for reasons unknown
There’s even free wifi, though the best part is the smooth sea state. Also worth noting that there are several bathrooms, and they’re in decent shape.
There are also a plethora of bicycles aboard the ship. Our son wishes that we could rent some as part of our tour, but sadly they are not available to those under 16 years of age. Given the 35 Celsius plus heat, we’re not sure bicycling would be our top choice of activities.
Hello, Rottnest!
We disembark smoothly and meet our guide by the Visitor’s Centre – who takes us up to see some quokkas!
Quokkas are nocturnal, so they are pretty sleepy.
Do not give the quokkas coffee, no matter how much they look like they need it
Our guide then moves on to the bakery, where there are some more active quokkas. I’m not particularly keen on ‘garbage quokkas’ – a paraphrasing of ‘garbage bears’, as my wife has dubbed the polar bears near Churchill, Manitoba that have become habituated to humans and our refuse. So my son and I hang back a bit.
He spots a quokka joey:
The joey and its mom are much more active during daytime, which makes for some lovely shots.
The joey goes in to nurse for a while. It also attempts to climb back inside its mom’s pouch, which she promptly shuts down.
It enjoys a some nice green pine needles instead:
There are days when I try not to post too many photos. This is not one of those days.
Fun Fact: The collective noun for quokka is a ‘shaka’, named after the ‘hang loose’ surfer hand signal after legendary surfer Kelly Slater posted a photo of himself doing a ‘shaka’ selfie with a quokka.
Happy Valentine’s Day, adorable quokka family…
We leave to meet up with our group and board our bus. Unfortunately, our bus is running behind. Our guide keeps us entertained as best she can, but it’s immensely hot so my son and I move out of the way so we can find a breeze.
Eventually the bus shows up, and we embark. It’s another large coach bus, which is far more than we need for the 12 of us – but we’re not complaining, as there are window seats for everyone who wants one.
We immediately find out why the bus was late. The road is chockablock with cyclists, each of whom seem to be competing with one another to determine who has the greatest deathwish. Seriously – they meander across the middle of the road, many aren’t wearing helmets, and some haven’t bothered to bring any water (despite the signs warning them there is absolutely no water beyond this sign). It boggles the mind.
I’m usually not a fan of bus tours, but this one is decent. We take in much of the scenery of Rottnest Island, though we only pause briefly by the side of the road to get photos – no dismounting for us.
And on your right – a lighthouse you won’t get to visit
It’s understandable, though, as traffic moves at a snail’s pace due to all the cyclists and pedestrians.
The driver has to be careful where he stops, as there are frequently large mobs of tourists waiting to get on the Rottnest ‘hop on, hop off’ buses. Our bus is visually indistinguishable from those other buses, just to make it that much more confusing.
The Dutch are the first Europeans to have reached the island. They originally thought the quokkas were rats, and so named the island ‘Rats Nest’ island. Wadjemup is the Noongar name for the island. Places frequently have the ‘up’ ending in Western Australian, as it means ‘Place Of’ in Noongar.
But there is a bit of wildlife here, including the odd quokka visible through the window and some birdlife:
But mostly just heaps and heaps of people:
We return to the main settlement area in Thompson Bay shortly before 1 pm, just in time for lunch at Isola Bar e Cibo.
Photo Credit: Isola Bar e Cibo
No photos of the meal, as we were dining with fellow guests – but there is an absolutely immense amount of food. They start with antipasti – bread, proscuitto, cured beef and arugula, buffalo mozzarella and fresh tomatos – and then move on to prawns and calamari. They seat all 12 of us one large table, and the food is served family style. They seem to replenish any plates that are depleted.
The kids aren’t particularly keen on the menu, so we asked if they could do some plain pasta – which they very kindly do.
We soon find that we’ve been eating for more than an hour, and we’d still like to do a bit of snorkelling. So we inform the guide, change into our swim gear in the bathrooms, and make the 15 minute-long walk to Pinky Beach:
I somehow managed to pack my daughter’s dive mask instead of my own but – once our son has pointed out a nearby sting ray – I’m still able to get some decent GoPro footage:
Our daughter also spotted a puffer fish and my wife may have seen a weedy seadragon!
We’re in the water for perhaps 25 to 30 minutes, and then we head back to meet up with our group. They apparently spent the previous hour and a half finishing up with lunch. After the appetizers, there was pasta, roast lamb, duck, and much more – so much food that they sent the guide home with a massive bag filled with takehome containers.
I’m headed toward a nearby tree to rearrange my backpack when my wife points out the quokka underneath it. One more quick photoshoot:
Then it’s time to re-board the ferry. No free drink on the return trip, but as a group booking we do get to skip the long, long line of people queueing up to get aboard. (Which makes the Brits in the group deeply uncomfortable, but not so uncomfortable that anyone declines the opportunity.)
30 minutes later, and we’re back at the ferry dock. The bus is waiting for us, so 10 of the 12 of us hop back on and return to the passenger terminal to reboard the Moon shortly before 5 pm.
And the verdict? While I’m sure we could have done this on our own, I’m very glad we didn’t have to. We would’ve been immensely stressed waiting for disembarkation, whereas booking the tour took all the guesswork out of it. We immediately saw quokkas – an important highlight for us – and I wouldn’t even have skipped the bus tour given the chance. That might be a first.
The downsides are obvious, however – we had enough time to try everything, but not enough to properly do anything. That’s not Silversea’s fault, though. It’s an inevitable consequence of trying to fit a place like Rottnest into a single-day tour.
Clearly there’s no other option but to return to Rottnest for a week sometime. Perhaps when we come back for our yet-to-be-scheduled winter visit, in which we’ll visit the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and more? Time will tell.
We return in time for the tail end of Valentine’s trivia. We correctly identify the Greek goddess of love (Aphrodite) and the city which hosts the ‘love locks’ bridge (Paris), but fail to identify a popular women’s Valentine’s gift to men in Japan (romantic coupons) or the country in which yellow flowers are given (Brazil). We once more secure a third place podium finish.
Roughly a third of our passengers changed over earlier today, so we have a new batch that has embarked heading for Singapore. We spot a few first-timers and help them try to wrap their heads around the finer points of Silversea – they seem amazed that they can order whatever they like and have it brought to them. Here’s hoping they have a lovely cruise.
Tonight’s menu:
I order the scallops to start:
While my wife has the beet salad:
And the kids get the tomato soup (not pictured).
I then have the roast filet with a king prawn add-on:
And my wife has the same, minus the prawns. It’s perhaps one of the finest meals we’ve ever had on Silversea. Absolutely delicious, and the beef is unbelievably tender.
For dessert, my wife and I have the peanut bar, while my son and daughter have the chocolate merveilleux.
There are little raspberry hearts in honour of Valentine’s Day
We return to our rooms to find that Silversea has provided us with a rose and raspberry financiers as a further Valentine’s treat. A lovely touch.
Time for bed, as we have one last early start on our final Australian excursion – Fremantle’s convicts and maritime history.
(We have been assured that Silversea has arranged to have Freemantle prison open early and that we won’t actually be driving around for 90 minutes between bus pickup at 7:30 am and 9:00 am when the prison opens to the public. We shall see.)