Thursday, October 03, 2013

Rotto

Thursday's weather was sunny skies and a temperature of 82, so we planned this for our day to head to Rottnest Island - named Rottnest because explorers thought the little kangaroo-like kuakas looked like giant rats (rat-nest).  They are decidedly much, much cuter.

The ferry departs from the B-Shed, right at the mouth of the Swan River in downtown Freo.  Rottnest is a car-free island, so we decided to take our bikes across, rather then rent.

We left really, really early to allow for tired little legs.  We were so early, that had time to sit out at a cafe for coffee and muffins (passion fruit, mango, coconut and apple cinnamon) before heading to the boat :)

  


Caden loved perusing the Aboriginal art in the windows next to the cafe.

The ferry ride takes about 40 minutes.  The bonus of the ride was spotting a pod of dolphins playing nearby.  We docked in Rotto, planned by map our goal of biking just half the island, lathered on the sun screen, and were off...

Getting ready to take off on our biking adventure!



The sun felt great, coupled with the gentle ocean breezes.  So much so, Gia fell fast asleep -


The Rotto hills got the better of us - or Caden, to be precise.  The poor little guy has such small wheels on his little bike, I had to feel for him.  We could see a beautiful beach on crystal blue waters off in the distance, so off we went, adjusting our goal to be reaching the beach and making it back to our departing ferry.




Perth off in the distance


The beach was well worth the journey.  We were there for hours hunting for shells and wading in the water.








The sand was gloriously soft and deep.



There were quite a few Portuguese Man O'Wars along the beach.  Lily wrote 'stop' in front of each one to be sure no one stepped on them :) 

This area was like a shell graveyard.  Beautiful big shells that were fossilized into the earth.  It didn't stop us from continuously trying to pry them up.
















Our bathing beauty






Another jellyfish with a pretty pattern.








The find of the trip!
This is the most beautiful shell I've seen found.  Caden is nearly a professional :)

Gia up by our lunch spot, looking like she owns the place.
Lunch at Dome






Our friend the kuaka


No comments: