Rottnest Island and the Indian Ocean

So if you can't tell by the adorable quokka in the picture above, my trip to Rottnest Island was fantastic!  Rottnest is an island of the coast of the Western Australia, about 20 minutes by ferry from Fremantle. My second day in Perth was spent there. I had several reasons for making sure that I stopped here during my short time in WA. Firstly, I really really wanted to make sure that I saw/swam in the Indian Ocean. I've never seen it before and one of my bucket list items is to see all five oceans. I was able to check three off the list after this trip! The island has some reefs around it, because the water is kept warm by the southward Leeuwin Current which brings warm water from the equator southward along the west coast of Australia. They have several snorkeling sites around the island, and even have underwater snorkeling trails set up. This was really cool, they have a series of plaques on the bottom of the sea floor that you follow as you snorkel. I went to little salmon bay and snorkeled there. I ended up being snorkel buddies with a extremely nice couple from Sydney. They were driving up the coast of WA, and were great company for the first part of my day. The snorkeling wasn't the best, it was a bit choppy and a little chilly. We saw some pretty sizable fish though. I think I'm also really spoiled from snorkeling and diving the GBR. But, it was the Indian Ocean, so that was really cool for me. 

The second reason that I wanted to go to Rottnest was that I wanted to chance to do some hiking and get to see some of the natural areas of WA, even though I was there for such a short time. I ended up hiking part of the island, and taking the bus part of the way. Rottnest is really rather small, there is a single road that goes around the entire island. There are only buses and bikers allowed on this road. No private cars. This makes it easy to hike along. It consists of gently rolling hills and a scrub brush ecosystem. This meant that there were long stunning views of the ocean along each stretch of the hike (see above). Also it made it impossible to get lost, which was great since I was hiking on my own. I took proper precautions though. I had a map with me, as well as a first aid kit, water, food, rain gear, a blanket/towel, and extra layers. Nothing went wrong and none of my emergency gear had to be used. I had wonderful sunny weather with a bit of a breeze, and wasn't really on my own for more than two hours or so. It was actually a wonderful experience, I was able to go at my own pace, take in the sites and really live in and out of my head. It was the ultimate relaxing activity for me and I loved it. 

The next, and most important, reason that I wanted to get to Rottnest is the quokkas. Quokkas are small marsupials that fulfill a rabbit-like niche. They are technically small kangaroos, but are endemic (only found) on Rottnest, so this is the only place in the world that you can see them in the wild. They are extremely cute and are everywhere on Rottnest! I didn't see any the first hour I was there and was really concerned that I wouldn't see any, but I shouldn't have been worried. I saw one when I was on the bus, and from there my luck just increased. As I was hiking along I saw two that were eating plants along the trail (above left). I snapped some photos and watched them hop! My next quokka encounter was my highlight of the trip. I stopped for lunch at a picnic area overlooking a beach and the lighthouse. I was the only person there and it was a beautiful and peaceful place to stop for lunch. I was eating my hummus and veggies, when suddenly, this quokka came hopping up to me from nowhere. He proceeded to hop around my picnic table and basically beg me for my food. I know that it is not a good idea to feed or touch wild animals, because then they become dependent on humans for food and cannot survive on their own, so I didn't do either of those things. I did snap some great photos, and had wonderful company at lunch (see the top picture and right above picture). While this was really cool to be that close to him, it also made me a little sad. This really isn't natural behavior. I learned later that day when walking through the Rottnest Museum that the island's ecology has been extremely altered by humans. The island used to be covered in forest instead of scrubland until humans chopped it down, quokkas lived around the edges of the forest and were present, but not numerous. For awhile humans hunted the quokkas and kept the population in check, but once the practice stopped they became very numerous, and now prevent the forest from growing back and maintain the scrubland. It's interesting to learn how human alterations can have unforeseen consequences. 

Learning about the ecological history of the island didn't detract from my day. And when it was time to catch the ferry back I was treated to sunset over the Swan River and some stunning views of twilight falling over Perth (see below). The purple color of the sky was reflected into the river, and now Perth will forever be associated with purple in my mind. It was the perfect end to an amazing day. This day was all about appreciating the beauty of a small piece of Western Australia and I'm so happy that I was able to include that in my time there.