Rottnest Island
On our annual holiday in Perth this year we decided to do something different - spend a night on Rottnest Island. Graham and I had done this many years ago, but this time we took Louka and her nanna.
The ferry from Hillary's Boat Harbour took 40 minutes, with a 2m swell, which wasn't too bad. We were past the halfway mark when the crew announced a pod of whales on the starboard side. I'd never seen whales in the wild before, so it was an auspicious start for me.
We arrived late in the morning but had to wait a while till our accommodation was ready. It turned out to be half a historic cottage, recently renovated. Dumping our bags there left us free to wander around, so we headed out for lunch.
The special feature of Rottnest Island is the quokkas. They were called rats by the early Dutch explorers who gave the island its name. Louka was very taken by them, adopting Kylie and her baby shy Shaye (Shaye was about 2/3 the size of an adult quokka). After watching what they ate, Louka collected plenty of Morton Bay Fig flowers to feed them, crawling under bushes when they didn't come out in the open. It was interesting that they would choose to eat the flowers and leaves Louka offered, even though they were collected from the ground nearby.
There was also a swallow's nest in a corner of the back yard of our cottage. After noticing the parent swallows swooping in under the roof I checked and discovered they were feeding chicks.
When we went for a walk along the beach, a young girl was playing in the water. It was very calm. Louka asked if she might stop and play with the girl so we left her there and walked to the rocks at the end of the beach.
Next morning the weather was cooler and windy. We had to check out of our cottage so we sat and watched Louka play in the playground until our ferry arrived.
The ferry from Hillary's Boat Harbour took 40 minutes, with a 2m swell, which wasn't too bad. We were past the halfway mark when the crew announced a pod of whales on the starboard side. I'd never seen whales in the wild before, so it was an auspicious start for me.
We arrived late in the morning but had to wait a while till our accommodation was ready. It turned out to be half a historic cottage, recently renovated. Dumping our bags there left us free to wander around, so we headed out for lunch.
The special feature of Rottnest Island is the quokkas. They were called rats by the early Dutch explorers who gave the island its name. Louka was very taken by them, adopting Kylie and her baby shy Shaye (Shaye was about 2/3 the size of an adult quokka). After watching what they ate, Louka collected plenty of Morton Bay Fig flowers to feed them, crawling under bushes when they didn't come out in the open. It was interesting that they would choose to eat the flowers and leaves Louka offered, even though they were collected from the ground nearby.
There was also a swallow's nest in a corner of the back yard of our cottage. After noticing the parent swallows swooping in under the roof I checked and discovered they were feeding chicks.
When we went for a walk along the beach, a young girl was playing in the water. It was very calm. Louka asked if she might stop and play with the girl so we left her there and walked to the rocks at the end of the beach.
Next morning the weather was cooler and windy. We had to check out of our cottage so we sat and watched Louka play in the playground until our ferry arrived.
posted by Liz + Louka at 4:36 pm
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