What an adventure!

I've just had an amazing day. The conference finished yesterday and so I decided to take the day off and go to Rottnest island. The weather was stormy and so I was looking forward to a slightly rough boat ride across the open ocean! I got to the ferry terminal and booked a ticket. The lady at the counter asked me if I "was mad" and whether I had eaten lots of "sea-sickness pills". In fact, I'd just had a reasonably big breakfast with Rob at the hotel. Anyway, the first hour of the journey is just down the river to Fremantle. I got chatting with a student from Melbourne who was very friendly and told me that she was going to spend a few weeks in Kalgoorlie (seems a strange place to visit for a holiday). She got off at Fremantle and I transfered to the "ocean" going boat. I expected it to be big. It wasn't. In fact it seemed a bit like something you might play with in the bath. The few of us on board were told that we could only sit downstairs (and inside), had to remain sitting and to hold on! They then handed around sea-sickness bags ("Do you think you'll need one or two, sir?") and off we went.

Well, I think that the boat was trying to be a submarine. We climbed to the top of a wave (which seemed terrifyingly high from where I was sitting) and then plunged down leaving our stomachs a long way behind. It was fun! Apart from thinking that the boat would fall apart at any moment, I really did enjoy myself. It was like being on a roller-coaster for about 40 minutes (and I wasn't sick)!

Rottnest island is stunning. The weather cleared up (although there were short rain showers throughout the day) and I decided to walk around the island. I ended up walking about 20km (which is about half way). The scenery is amazing. Lots of empty sandy beaches with turquoise water. Beautiful inland salt lakes covered in various birds. In fact, I saw pied oyster catchers, cormorants, ospreys, shell ducks, pelicans, kestrels, terns and heaps more that I've probably forgotten now. I found a quokka! They seem to hide in the winter and so I actually thought that I wouldn't manage to spot one. The one I found was sitting under a bush and let me come up and stroke it!

After finishing my walk (which included amazing views of rainbows out at sea, partially submerged ship wrecks, wonderful light houses and heaps more) I got back to the main village, had lunch (at 3pm), saw the Rottnest museum (very interesting) and then caught the ferry back. Again it was rough!

I've now just had a big goat curry and am planning on trying to warm up and dry out my clothes before bed!