Hey everyone, welcome to lucky day 13. Got up at about 7 as had to be ready at 9 to be picked up by the transfer bus to get the fast ferry to Rottnest Island. Rottnest or Rotto as it's locally known is situated 18 kilometres off the coast of Perth. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water". The island is 11 kilometres long, and 4.5 kilometres at its widest point. It took about half an hour to get there on the ferry. The island is pretty much free of vehicles. Only buses and service vehicles are allowed. The best way to get about is by bike. I had paid for bike hire along with the ferry so I was able to get my bike straight from the ferry. This was great fun as I've not been on a bike for ages. I got something for lunch and some water from the main settlement first and then headed off round the island in search of the beautiful little beaches and the quokkas. The islands fairly hilly so it was a bit tough going in places but I managed all the hills and never got off the bike to walk up! Going down the hills obviously was loads of fun. The scenery here is stunning, a very rugged coastline with loads of little bays and a beautiful turquoise coloured sea. The inside of the island is all bush and scrub. Although near to Perth the island feels like it is a million miles away. The island got it's name from Rotte Nest (meaning "rat nest" in the Dutch lnaguage by Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh who spent six days exploring the island from 29 December 1696, mistaking the quokkas for giant rats. I was on the lookout for quokkas all the time but none were to be seen. After cycling for about 45 minutes or so I came to one of the nicest beaches and bays on the island, Little Parakeet Bay. I stopped here for lunch and a swim. The water is crystal clear, has big fish swimming round and the water is lovely and warm. After about an hour here it was back on the bike and off again in search of that elusive quokka. I cycled round the other side of the island and back to the main settlement without seeing any and then suddenly surrounded by Japanese and their cameras was one solitary quokka. The quokka is a marsupial, similar in size to the domestic cat and kind of a cross between a small wallaby and a rat. They hop and skip like kangaroos and are very very cute. Once the Japanese had gone I could get close and got a couple of pictures of this now jap-distressed quokka. I then got back on the bike and went back to the raods I had cycled along first thing, because it was around here on a previous visit that there had been loads of them. Just as I was about to give up and accept that it was not my quokka day, I suddenly saw one ...... then another ......... and another! In the end there were about five of them including a really cute baby one. They are really tame and friendly and come right up to you and let you stroke them, I love them, they're completely ace little creatures. I had them all to myself for a while until some other people came along and managed then to get my photo taken with one of them. Eventually very happy and all quokka'd out I cycled back to the ferry for my return trip to the mainland. Once back it was simply a case of getting my tea and chillin for the rest of the day.