Sun shining and blue skies for our last morning on Rottnest. Up fairly early as our luggage had to be placed out the front of our apartment by 8am. Plenty of time to clean up and get organised before catching a shuttle to Thomson Bay. Headed to the Bakery for some brekkie, wandered around town for a while and just relaxed in wait for our ferry departure back to Fremantle. Was a blast to catch up with Anne and Dave Connelly .... Literally crossed paths as they arrived from Fremantle for a day trip and we headed off! And we only live streets apart ! They were visiting their son Josh who lives in Fremantle. Our trip back was like a mill pond in comparison to the way over! Enjoyed sitting outside - intently scouring for whales .....unfortunately to no avail!
Our return was into to Northpoint. Once we collected our luggage and realised no taxis were evident, booked one through the ticket office. In the meantime a group of other passengers organised a shuttle bus and the driver assured us he could drop us where we needed to be. Too easy! Only had to drag our bags about 100m to the Europcar depot to collect our rental car. Our Toyota Camry sedan soon evolved into a Volkswagen Passat station wagon ......with leather interior and GPS!! Certainly can't complain!! Unreal!
Didn't drive far on leaving the depot - parked in a nearby parking station and wandered around town. Found the tourist information and picked up some maps etc. Found a pleasant cafe on the edge of "cappuccino strip" for lunch then following Anne's advice took the blue CAT (free) bus for a trip through to South Fremantle and back past the sailing clubs and fisheries on the watersedge. Timing was perfect as we then jumped on the red CAT bus for its quick loop. Felt we covered and were able to see a decent amount of the interesting town of Fremantle. Beautiful old buildings including the town hall, churches and many pubs and hotels - so well restored and maintained. Certainly an interesting mix of somewhat colourful people.
Headed off north firstly stopping at Cottesloe Beach for a wander around then continued on trying to follow the coastline as much as possible. Checked out Scarborough enroute to our motel not far away at North Beach. Decided to head straight off taking advantage of daylight hours and drove through Sorrento then Hilary's Boat Harbour. (It is possible to get a ferry from Hilary's to Rottnest ). This is N amazing, obviously quite newly developed area of shopping , resort style accommodation, bars, fast food outlets and restaurants. A Darling Harbour style area set alongside moored yachts and cruisers with an aquarium and adjacent kids water fun park with a bay swimming area. Would ge incredibly popular in summer! Had a relaxing drink at the Bayswater Hotel then headed back via a bottle shop for supplies. Couldn't believe our luck - the sun was setting! A brilliant sunset over the Indian Ocean! Walked just around the corner from our motel to a lovely Italian pasta restaurant. Most enjoyable !