Thursday, March 27, 2014

Rottnest Island, WA, Australia

March 2014


Rottnest Island is located off the Western Australian coast, just 19 km from Fremantle. The island is 11 km long and 4.5 km wide at the widest point. It is popular with Perth/Fremantle locals and tourists alike, and attracts the young, old, families, friends, couples and everyone else I may have missed!


Rottnest Island is also the easiest place to locate the Quokka (easier than I thought it would be). The Quokka is a funny animal, that looks rat like, hops like a kangaroo and hence the name for Rottnest (Rat Nest).


Our main objective was snorkeling and hiking. When we realised we were very limited in time, we had to pair back our objective to just snorkeling, next time we'll be sure to check out the Rottnest Wadjemup Walk Trail (which will be expended before we are back).


Our first stop was Parker Point, which was a bit of a disappointment and mainly covered in weed beds.



Our next stop was Mary Cove, which was the best of the three locations of all day. The bus dropped us at Green Island and we walked the 700 m to the cove where coral and fish were plentiful.




We stopped at Geordie Bay for lunch, the service was a lot quicker than I expected but next time to allow for more flexibility I would bring a packed lunch (we really wanted to snorkel at Little Armstrong bay but couldn't fit it in time wise).


After lunch, was our final snorkel spot at The Basin. Conveniently located 1 km from both the ferry port and main town and Geordie Bay where we had lunch. I've read that you can see stingrays in this area, but there were none seen during the time we were there.


There are plenty of places to snorkel, dive, hike, swim and just relax on Rottnest. There are a number of accommodation options, but I'm told they are hard to book. We found a day trip fine and as long as you have an idea of what you want to do and where on the island you want to do it you should have a great day on Rotto.

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