Rottnest

Quokka

Thud, thud, thud, thud… its endless, it sounds like we’re running down a family of kangaroos but it’s a line of large orange cones which moments ago were sitting patiently across the road guiding the traffic to merge. The open road speed in WA is 110km/h and we’re cruising along with the building traffic on a double lane highway when we notice the other lane slowing and our lane is merging, we are big so slowing down takes time and we overtake three vehicles on our left. We're closing in on the merge zone and the first car zips through, the second cuts us off too and then there is the big angry truck and trailer who plain runs us off the road. I’m angry, I’m terrified, I’m relieved, there’s so many emotions in these split seconds. He was so close and he actually just ran us off the road, I'm speechless. The cars behind him thankfully have stopped and we're back on the road debriefing after a close call when we hear a strange bumping, then a weird thud. Did we just hit something else without even noticing. “Cone” Ben says, we pull over to be sure we haven’t dislodged something from underneath. We see nothing but way back I see one large lonely orange cone lying dead in the road, cars giving it a wide berth on either side. 

It’s looking like a post bedtime arrival, sometimes you realise you’ve stretched too far so I’m looking for the nearest McDonalds so I don’t have to make a late dinner. Now there’s three happy hamburglers eating quietly in the dark, we zig zag our way down dark streets to the Coogee Beach Discovery Park, google maps is taking us on another weird detour. 

It’s not late but we're still running on some previous time zones and its definitely bedtime there so we’re all past tired.

We’re up with the sun and Alila has her tutorial, as soon as it ends we’re out the door with our Uber ordered, ready for an adventure. But then the Uber cancels, then the next, I’m on my phone ringing taxi companies when Ben confirms an uber is definitely picking us up. It’s close but our Uber driver is zippy and with our e-tickets we make the ferry with a minute or two to spare. 

 

Quokkas we learn are marsupials which look like furry wee kangaroos or giant rats depending on your point of view. One explorer named the Island Rat Nest and it was later misspelled by some other genius Rottnest and everyone lived happily ever after. The boat trip is short and pleasant and we’re soon riding out of the bike hire shed. It’s chaotic with the amount of people here already and we hardly make a dent in the stacks of bikes, this place must get crazy when the world is open.

Alila is in charge of navigation today so her and Ben check the map then its off along the narrow road. Its hot already but its lovely to be out riding. We stop by Little Salmon Bay for a swim and it’s warm enough to continue on cycling in our togs. It’s not a flat island, its like a series of dunes, so its hard work on some of the hills especially when you have a singing 4 year old on your bike, but she's great at encouraging me up the steeper parts and giving us regular updates on who's the slowest. There’s no wildlife apart from a lizard with a stubby little tail which someone later tells me is a bobtail, of course. They have no fresh water here and the salt lakes we pass are festery looking and just a tad smelly. 

Once we reach the Ferry terminal township again we eat then head off to the Quokka Tour. It starts at 1pm and we find we’re the only ones, probably because it feels like 40 degrees in the desert. Nicky is our kind elderly guide who’s a tad unsteady and slower than slow but a fount of information. There’s a dark history here which I suggest may not suit this audience and so Nicky sticks to the fluffy stuff, that is the Quokka and we leave her having learnt a lot about an animal we never even knew existed.

It's definitely chill out time back at camp so I head over to get a weeks washing done, the lucky thing is the coin catchers are broken and the sign reminds you to take your dollars when you're done, the unlucky thing is that the drain is blocked and you create your own indoor waterfall. The sodden towel on the floor was no suggestion of the magnitude of the issue and my attempts to fix the blockage are futile so I back out the door and wait outside till my washing is done. 

A short walk away is Coogee Common where we head for dinner, they grow a lot of their own produce and have a farm store. Alila and I peer through the windows of the Ferment Room with all its jars and bottles of food being pickled and preserved. Ben ordered a small dish of Kangaroo which we all tried including the kids with Alila stating her best friend would be horrified as Kangaroos are her favourite animal.