WA - Freo

Ah, back to the dodgy YHA backpackers (though it was a much better room)… as we arrived back a bit later than planned so we took a walk down to the park and had some packed lunch with the seagulls watching us enviously. There was a nasty little one who kept chasing all the other seagulls away, so when he was busy being mean to one gull, we fed a different one some scraps. This turned into a bit of a brawl between the gulls, and those familiar with “Finding Nemo” would recognise the chorus of “MINE! MINE!”. When we thought we’d stirred up a big enough fight, we left, only to be followed by about 50 screaming seagulls. We chucked them the remainder of our sarnies and pegged it ;)

The nearest place to seek refuge was the Little Creatures Brewery, lucky us ;) This is a nice little pub on the harbour, which brews its own beers on site, and is well known across Australia (despite only really being sold here in Freo). We stayed here most of the afternoon, trying out the 4 different beers and then trying them again to find out our favourite – Ev liked Pale Ale and Marc the Golden (there was also Amber and Pilsner). Of course, we also had to stay here until the gulls had gone ;) So, we got chatting to a few locals, the sun came out, and we had a nice relaxing afternoon, which almost turned into a nice evening as well until Ev prised Marc away ;)

Next day we headed over to Rotto (Rottenest Island) and the weather was perfect, though a bit too hot. We hired bikes on the Island and ended up cycling all around the island. Our first meeting with the locals was not all that pleasant – we’d seen a few “bob-tail” lizards, and as one crossed the road, Marc rang his bell. The lizard retaliated by hissing and bearing teeth!!

We made it out to the tip of the island (about 12km), which is pretty far in the heat, into the wind and up/down hills. It was worth it though as we got some pretty good views. We didn’t see dolphins or whales though, and the school kids laughed at us when we said we hadn’t seen any quokkas yet…

Quokkas are basically mini kangaroos – little marsupials the size of rabbits, which are cute, cuddly and extremely common. The teachers suggested we look under shady trees, so we went on our way. About 10mins down the road, we found some with babies. They were really tame and we fed them some leaves. We then found them under every other tree we saw ;)

We then reached the lighthouse base, and Marc being Marc decided to cycle all the way to the top whilst Ev waited at the bottom. Ev watched quite a few other couples attempt the cycle up the hill, but they were nowhere near as fit as Marc and only made it half way before coming back down ;) There were some pretty good views up top, and Marc got some uncharacteristically good photos (e.g. no fingers, heads, etc in the way). The ride back down was fun…

We then headed to the beach for our picnic, but being a bit fussy we ended up back at the very first beach we saw. It was worth it as this beach was secluded and a good sun trap. We soaked up some rays, which was most needed after our 25km cycle. Marc went snorkelling in the chilly sea (the Southern Ocean currents too cold for Ev), and saw loads of fish.

On the ferry back we ended up sitting outside, and got absolutely soaked by the spray. By the time we considered going inside it was too late…

We then picked up our gear, changed, and headed to Coolibah Backpackers in Perth…