The journey to the island was around 30 minutes, allowing me to arrive before the day had even fully dawned. I would have around 6 hours on the island and so, under the advice of friends, I hired a bike to explore the 26km coastline.
Rottness is located 18km off the coast of WA. It is called Wadjemup by the Nonngar people, meaning "place across the water". the island is 11km long, and 4.5km wide. It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the Rottnethority. Living on the island are little creatures called Quokka. These look like something between a tiny kangaroo and a giant rat and are the reason for the island's name, Rottness meaning rat's nest.
For the first part of the day I iddled along on my bike enjoying the beautiful coastline, pink coral reefs and the warmest weather I've received since landing in Austrlia. The coastline of Rottness is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and its undisturbed nature creates a relaxing and peacful setting which I thouroughly enjoyed being a part of.
During my journey around the island I was fortunate enough to stumble across two brown lizzard sunbathing on the road in addition to many different birds, including pelicans and peacocks - gorgeous!
Around 2pm I arrived in the 'mall' area of the island where there are a small collecion of shops and places for lunch. This was also my first discovery of the quokkas which wisely collected in this area at this time of day; accustomed to the likeliness of humans dropping crumbs during lunch.
One of these delicate little creatures got a little more friendly than I had expected and before I knew what was happening it had hopped onto my lap where it briefly settled before taking a dive, head first, into my bag. I feel very fortunate to have experienced such a friendly encounter from this wee creature, it was so soft and affectionate and very gentle with its movements, frequently pawing at my legs, feet and hands.
Having refreshed with lunch and plenty of water, to compensate for the heat, I had an hour or so left to wonder around the inhabited area of the island. Here I discovered a chapel, cemetary, settlements and a cinema. Most amazingly, and luckily, I came across a female quokka with a joey in her pouch! Not wanting to disturb her the image isn't the clearest but clicking on it should increase its size. This certainly made up for the few Kangaroos I have seen so far during my time in Australia.
Before I knew it it was time to get back on the boat and return to Fremantle. My time on Rottness had certainky ended too early.
I spent the rest of the evening reading as tomorrow would be my last day in Fremantle,with Paddy from the next outdoor site collecting me in the early evening, and I wanted to be well rested for the 9 day programme that soon awaits me.
