I woke up before the alarm went off at 6:30 am on the 16th. I dressed, packed a shoulder bag and had breakfast before leaving the hotel around 7:50 am. It wasn’t too long a walk to the Crowne Plaza pick up point; I took it slow and easy but my knee was feeling pretty good anyways. I was waiting at the stop when the bus arrived early. There were several other passenger pickups to be made so I did get to see more of Perth before we drove to the ferry.  It was about 9:15 am by the time we arrived at Hillary’s, the departure point for the Rottnest Ferry. Hillary’s was a typical tourist combination of retail shopping, equipment rentals and eateries. I just got a ticket with a voucher and walked to the ferry dock directly. I found a seat on the lower deck of the ferry by a window, then watched the crew load rented bikes and people boarding. There was a mix of people: families with young children, cyclists, hikers, tourists of all ages – Australian and foreign. It was a 45 minute ride to the island and I stared at the water or dozed for much of that time. We disembarked on a long pier which served several ferry lines and everyone set out to explore the island. 

The day was sunny and not too warm with a nice breeze. I had a tour booked via Railbookers – a train ride and a bus tour around the island – a combo which seemed perfect for resting my knee. I did need to stop both at the info center and at a hotel reception desk to get directions to the rail station. I found the place after about 10 minutes of walking (I did not mind since it was a beautiful day with lots of picturesque views of land and the Indian Ocean).  Apparently I’d missed a shuttle from the info center to the rail station somehow; there were a lot of people from the ferry waiting at the station for the train. The station itself was a tiny thing, just a shaded platform. I was signed in, got a sticker to identify me as part of the tour group and found a perch to wait. The train, the Captain Hussey, was originally built to move men, supplies and materials, during and after, the construction of two gun placements on Oliver Hill before the beginning of World War II. The guns were there to protect Perth as well as the submarine and air base at Fremantle, but they were never used during the war and the railway fell in and out of use until its recent transformation as a tourist attraction. I did enjoy the short open air train ride up to Oliver Hill, but I decided not to go on the tour of the tunnels and gun placements. We had a light lunch on Oliver Hill then boarded a bus for a tour of the island.

The bus audio system did not work very well where I was sitting mid-bus but I enjoyed what little history I did hear. Two memorable things: First, when we stopped at the West End of Rottnest island, the guide pointed out that there was no land to the west until one hits Madagascar or South Africa, just hundreds of miles of open water. I had to check a map: yes, that was right! It reminded me that though we call our planet, Earth, it’s actually mostly covered by water. The list of cities with antipodes on land is actually pretty short! Second, we saw the local marsupials, quokkas. The traditional Noongar name for the island is Wadjemup, which means “place across the water where the spirits are”. The Australian name of the island comes from the Dutch who first discovered the island in the late 1600s; they thought that the quokkas were giant rats hence the name of “Rott Nest” or rat’s nest island. The quokkas are largely nocturnal animals with no predators on the island; they are quite unfazed by humans and human activities. There were a few of them awake and outside in the late afternoon which gave me an opportunity for photos and a chance to feed them some local plant life. The bus took us back to the info center and dock area. I walked around the area a little as more as more quokkas came out. I would have liked to sit and have a glass of wine or cocktail while watching the quokkas but I had to catch the last fast ferry back to Hillary’s. It was a quiet ride back: both the children and adults were tired and sleeping after their time on the island. The only real problem was a lack of AC on the ferry lower deck where I was sitting; it was a bit too warm, especially when the sun was shining in the area. Luckily, it was only a 45 minute ride back to Hillary’s where I boarded a bus to take me back to the Crowne Plaza and my hotel.