Rottnest Island Days 2/3

I hired a bike for two days and had a lovely time cycling all round Rottnest. I even went snorkelling when the sun was out. The underwater ‘interpretive signs’ have long since disappeared under coral, seaweed etc (unless they clean them off for summer) but there was lots of coral and fishes.

Inland Rottnest has another lighthouse and salt water lakes which are important for bird life. The beaches on the far west of the island were beautiful and very quiet. At Cape Vlamingh, the most westerly point, live a colony of fur seals who were obligingly frolicking, jumping and ‘flipper-sailing’ near the coast when I saw them. Still a bit far to get a good photo on my phone but you can hopefully see the flippers in the air. They do this whilst swimming to regulate their body temperature. I also saw a humpback whale very clearly through the telescope set up at the cape.

As well as the all important quokkas, who get everywhere, I have seen parakeets and many other birds, a dolphin swimming by the main jetty and a very small snake, probably a baby. Let’s hope that is the last snake I see! 

Cloudy evenings mean I’ve not caught a good sunset, but the last two days have stayed dry and a mix of sun and cloud was good for cycling. 

Empty beach

Not built for high performance but it got me around (and is a nice colour)

I had to take a picture of ‘City of York’ bay. Named after a 1899 shipwreck and not my hometown.

Crossing the salt lakes inland 

Cape Vlamingh

Fur seals doing some flipper sailing

Some of my many quokka photos

The gates to try and keep quokkas out of places don’t really work… this one joined me for breakfast