Rottnest Island
After Saturday night blended into Sunday, I felt I needed an easy day to recover. Monday therefore become my Sunday, We took the boat across from Fremantle to Rottnest Island. Rottnest was named so because the dutch sailor who found it, put in his log that it was infested with rats. In later re-writes of the log Rottnest mistakenly became its official name.
The 'rats' that inhabit the island are actually a small marsupials called a Quokka. I find it hard that someone even all those years ago couldn't tell the difference between a rat and a relative of the kangaroo. Surely they must have seen native wildlife if they'd already got to (what is now) Perth?
Obviously I'm no animalologist but (jam tongue under bottom lip) Eeernrrnr. Do rats bounce like that? No. Do they have huge kangaroo like back legs and small arms? No. Get off your boat and have a look. He probably saw kangaroos and went "Look itsh a bounshy cow, how did jjhe get here? Lt. HaagenDaajjs, Pash me jhat bong yesh?."
Apart from the cute little bouncing rats, Rottnest is famous for its reefs, as it has a warm current which passes along its shores and has allowed tropical fish and coral to thrive there. We went snorkeling at Parakeet Bay, one of the gorgeous little bays that Rottnest has so many of. Most people hire bikes and ride around the island, but as it would've been a bit dodgy if Tony hired one while he was on crutches we got the bus.
It was a chilled out day. It felt like a Sunday. On the way back I started chatting to a girl at the back of the boat as the sun went down. She was English but lived in Sydney and was on a 10 day break to the West Coast. She turned out to be staying in the hostel next door to us so we chatted most of the way back to Northbridge. Just before we got home, we got to the what-did-you-do-in-the-UK part of the conversation. She said "Merlin Communications? You don't know someone called Mark Bishop do you?" Mark, Jo Balfour says hello...