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November 22nd - Trip to Rottnest Island.
Just a 45 minute ferry ride and we were at Rottnest Island, first impressions - beautiful!! With no touts to hassle us we went straight to the visitors centre and checked-in (to our dusty plot of land). The helpful lady gave us a map and showed us where to go. It looked simple enough, however after walking past 'tent land' twice, we realised the tentless area with no sign of camping life was actually 'tent land'. When we found our allocated spot there were two backpacking girls our sort of age who had just started putting their tent up, phew, we were not alone! Sadly our luggage hadn't yet made its way from the ferry so we ate M&M's and sweets and I began writing todays blog.
Our luggage soon arrived and we set about the monumental task of building our house for the night - a two man tent no less! Suprisingly the tent was very easy to set up and we were done in no time. Whilst building our tent we realised we may have been in someone elses terrirory - a massive crow watched from just a few feet away, walking around and keeping a beedy eye on what we were doing. We decided to name him and after rejecting Bob or Frank, it was decided Mustafa was most suitable. With our stuff sorted, we then headded to the bakery for a bite to eat and some water (We had two bottles which we were supposed to take with us from the house but forgot!). Whilst at the bakery, Sam looked at the map we had been given and picked out the bay she wanted to go to as it was recommended for snorkelling so we set off down the road on foot...2 hours later and still walking we understood why everyone who visits Rottnest hires a bicycle!! Looking around us, one song in particular came to mind..."we're on the road to nowhere, doo doode doooo". Once you have left the main settlement on the island, that's it...no shops, few people and importantly no water!!! You have to be prepared! With all this in mind we didn't make it to our chosen bay and instead planted our bums on the nearest strip of sand. We were not saddened by this though, as the beach we stopped at was just as paradise like. We were almost alone, just one or two others also enjoying the beach. Feeling rather warm from our trek we paddled in the sea but found it to be colder than expected so didn't swim. Unfortunately the walk had caused Tom's new flip flops to rub real bad - nearly to the bone he says! So the prospect of having to walk another couple of hours back was not good! There's a bus that drives round the island and it passed us shortly before we came to one of the bus stops - looking at the timetable we realised it wouldn't be back for another hour, damn! When we left the beach to make our way back, again we had missed the bus but this time it had done its last trip of the day so we accepted we were destined to walk!! I suggested Tom try walking without any shoes but the road was just too hot for that. Walking back another song came to mind, this time it was "on the road again, I can't wait to be back on the road again" although Tom changed it to fit the situation so was singing "on the road again, I don't wanna be back on the road again", this then turned to "this is the road to hell"!! We decided the reason we keep coming up with songs to fit different situations we find ourselves in, is because our vocabularly isn't extensive enough!! Most days have a new set of songs - so random too!
On the walk back only two people passed us and the feeling of being isolated really hit home. Never the less we made it in one piece, well I did, Tom had a few flesh wounds! Back at our tent all the suffering was quickly forgotten as it was BBQ time - woo! Before getting to Rottnest I had imagined it would be really busy and that we would have to wait ages to use the BBQ - this most definately was not the case and instead we were the only ones. Once we found a BBQ which worked Tom set about cooking our mighty meaty feast! We both had sausages and flavoured chicken kebabs, I had a chicken schnitzel burger and Tom had steak. We also had a pasta salad and bread rolls and to complete the meal - strawberries and cream!!! Not forgetting a box of Rose and 6 cans of Bourbon and coke! Just as we were finishing our dinner a Quokka (mini Kangaroo really) came over to our table. The island got its name from the first explorers who saw the island covered with Quokkas and thought they were huge rats - Rottnest (they were Dutch so the translation would be Rat nest). These little creatures are very much used to seeing people these days and aren't afraid to come close. This became even more apparent when Tom had a tug of war with the one that came over to us, as it tried to steal our bread rolls! The cheeky little devil!! After dinner we had a wander into the main settlement and sat looking out to sea.
On the walk back to the tent we saw hundreds of Quokkas, they are most definately nocturnal! Although it wasn't late, we went to bed early as we wanted to get up and see the sun rise. Once in the tent we found out that despite being pitched on sandy ground, it was not comfortable in the least! We did some night vision filming, blair witch stylie, ate some cookies, planned to rent bikes asap the next morning, then went to sleep! Ooo...forgot to mention the flies during the day...extremely annoying!!!
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