Rottnest Island Express

Rottnest Island, here we come.

The view of Rottnest Island as we left the main land was something small and distant, way out on the horizon. Once in the ocean proper on our approx. 20 km journey, the chop in the water rose to about 30cm to 40cm. I thought of Laura Wallace who completed this mammoth Cottesloe to Rottnest annual Ocean swim back in 2018. How did she ever do it? I would never attempt it! Then there is Greg Young who completed this swim on numerous occasions when he lived in W.A. Amazing!

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Rottnest Island

Bike your way around Rottnest Island.

We hired a bike each, for use throughout our 3 day stay, to circumnavigate the 40 – 50 kms around the island, stopping at the various popular vantage spots. 1^st day after 15 minutes on the bike each of our backsides were hurting badly plus June fell off, head first into the soft dirt. How John L. and Ian ride for hours, on end is beyond us. We could only imagine what their backsides must be like? Or the other swimmers who ride from home daily to the beach.

After the above incidents, we decided to leave the bikes behind and catch the ‘hop-on, hop-off’ bus for our travels around the island, accompanying the elderly.

Bike Riding-Rottnest Island

Bird life on Rottnest Island.

Saw a number of new bird species whilst over here which takes my total number of different bird species photographed over the past 4 years to 232. Here I saw for the first time, a Western Whistler, a Red capped Robin and a Laughing Dove. Below are a few selected bird pics.

Click on pics to enlarge the bird pics.

Osprey-adult

Osprey-baby

Australian Pied Oystercatcher

Australian Shellduck, male n female

Caspian Terns

Crested Terns

Galah

Laughing Dove

Grey Fantail

Red Capped Robin

Silvereye

Western Whistler

Quokka.

Ray said to look out for a ‘Quokka’. They were everywhere, especially around the outdoor shops and residential areas. This pic was on the golf course. Here there was also a mum and its baby in the scrub.