Rottnest Island

I spent all of Saturday and Sunday at Rottnest Island.  The island is located about 20 minutes away by ferry from Fremantle, which is a port city about an hour west from where I live near Perth.  The island got its name from Dutch sailors who came to the island and saw tons of over-sized rats.  These rats were actually quokkas, cat-sized marsupials that scavenge for food (google them it's worth it).  The captain deemed the island infested, named the island 'rat's nest' and sailed on.

Although the island is eerily inhabited by the creatures, it's still a very beautiful place.  There's really two inhabited places: the main town (convenience store, pub, restaurants, bakery, souvenir shop, museum) and a settlement complex for vacationers.  I don't think many people live on the island; it was used in WWII but afterwards clearly developed for tourists.  It's extremely small with barely any cars, expensive food, short-stay accommodations, etc.

Once we got our rooms in a cabin, four other girls and I (two from kzoo) wandered about the small village, got some food and found a beach to lay out.  Soon we got even hungrier and decided to rent bikes for 24 hours.  We biked across the middle of the island to get to see some more beaches, a lighthouse, cove and natural freshwater lakes.  The greenery, trees and lakes were refreshing after spending so much time up north in the bush where there's yellow sand and small shrubbery.

That night we had fish and chips for dinner by the coast.  The Americans piled into one cabin to socialize before riding our bikes to the pub where there was a woman singing and playing the guitar.  I went to sleep before midnight, catching up on reading my dad's letters he sent while I was on my coastal tour.

The next morning we woke up to bike the island!  It's 11 km in length and 4.5 km at its widest point.  It took us about 3.5 hours to ride the perimeter, a total of about 24 km.  We stopped along at different bays and lookouts for the views and to rest up.  It started to rain just as we got to the farthest west point of the island--but we powered through it.  I loved being out in nature, listening to Eddie Vedder and Fleet Foxes while contemplating study abroad.  A lot of us are missing home quite a bit--I know I am.  It was just great to get out and enjoy one more purely Australian thing to do.