…as and when…

It was another early-ish morning and we were, once again, off on our travels. However, we weren’t venturing to some previously unvisited and unknown place this time… we were taking another trip to Rottnest Island; to enjoy more of the swimming and snorkelling that the island had to offer. This time we’d only be there for the day (rather than an expensive overnight stay) so we made sure we caught a ferry that would take us to the island as early as possible and return us to the mainland as late in the day as possible.

John kindly dropped us (on his way to work) at Hillary’s Boat Harbour so that we could catch the 8am ferry to Rottnest Island. This in itself was very much appreciated – otherwise we’d have been up and out of the house at 5:30am to catch the various buses, trains and ferries to take us there. We were soon onto the ferry at Hillary’s and, 45 minutes later, we were on Rottnest Island and making our way towards the main bus terminal.

On the ferry trip over to Rottnest, a very pretty young woman sat directly behind Lyn and myself. She was dressed in black, carrying a pink accessories bag containing her makeup, hairbrush and – no doubt – a multitude of other items that such a young woman would deem essential for such a trip. One thing she did lack was a basic sense of personal hygiene! Oh boy! Her body odour was potent enough to knock out several rows of assembled passengers. As she brushed her hair and put on her makeup, she would lift her arms and the smell hit like a steam train. Not only were Lyn and I looking at each other, but we noticed other passengers doing likewise. Sure, she might have pretty but she was a knockout for all the wrong reasons. To make matters worse she was also on the return ferry later in the day and had sat down near us…

Walking to the main bus terminal, we were ready to start swatting the swarms of flies that we’d no doubt encounter as we travelled around the island. Yet they were nowhere to be seen (apart from the odd fly buzzing around here and there). Maybe the high temperatures had killed off many of them? I didn’t know and I wasn’t too concerned to be honest… After purchasing the tickets and a short wait for the bus, we jumped onboard and made our way to Parker Point to begin our day of swimming and snorkelling.

A large pelican was lazily swimming and feeding on the shore as we found a place to put down our towels and bags. These birds really are huge! It didn’t seem to mind that we were close by so we left each other alone and went about our own business. It was another hot day so plenty of sun protection cream was applied before hitting the beach, whilst we were on the beach and whilst we were swimming/snorkelling in the ocean. Despite the cooling sea breeze and the relatively early hour, it was still easy to burn. Better safe than sorry. After a few minutes struggling to get the snorkelling gear setup correctly, I joined Lyn and we swam out towards the moored boats and followed the edge of the coral reef. The water was cool and the currents were strong – so we both got a good workout whilst swimming against the currents to the deeper waters. (Coming back was much easier as we simply rode the currents and waves back towards the shore). The water was quite calm at Parker Point (even with the strengthening breeze) but, sadly, the marine life was a little sparse. This was expected however as our previous visit hadn’t turned up much in the way of marine life here.

After an hour or so at Parker Point, we made the short walk to the next bay – Little Salmon Bay. This was supposed to be a good area for swimming and snorkelling. Sadly, the bay was very busy and many swimmers were splashing around in the bay area – which meant much of the marine life had gone into hiding. As a result, we decided not to hang around too long and thus waited for the island bus to arrive and to take us to our favourite bay on the island – Little Armstrong Bay. On our last visit, there had been plenty of marine life here so we were hopeful we’d see more once we’d dived into the bay.

Departing the bus, it was a short walk to Little Armstrong Bay. As the bay came into view we noticed that it was considerably busier than the last time we’d visited. We’d had the bay to ourselves last time; but this time there were many folks enjoying the secluded bay. Looking out towards the ocean, we also noticed that the waves were larger and choppy compared to our previous visit. Oh well, you can’t expect everything to be perfect all the time!

As we had guessed, the rougher waters meant that the visibility wasn’t as good once we were snorkelling out among the reefs and coral. Even so, the marine life was again much more abundant on this side of the island. Fish of all sizes and colours swam about – silvery and large to small and neon-blue. They would dart in and out of the rocks and sea grass whilst others were more inquisitive and would take a moment to check you out. As we headed into the deeper waters, there were some quite large fish to be seen. For good measure, there were also a handful of crayfish to be seen hiding around the reef and scuttling along the ocean floor. Sadly I didn’t see the octopus or rays I’d seen last time but I’m sure they probably weren’t too far away… I’m also sure the sharks weren’t too far away but I didn’t want to think about those!

We spent most of our day simply relaxing and swimming at Little Armstrong Bay. I took a short walk up onto the cliff tops to grab a few photos of the bay before returning to Lyn on the beach. As time pushed on, the time eventually arrived to leave the bay and to make our way back to the main resort area. We both needed something to eat (it had gone well past lunchtime) and something to drink. Jumping back onto the bus, we stayed onboard until the bus route terminated back at the main island terminal; then made our way directly towards The Dome for a late lunch.

Following our late lunch, and the writing of postcards whilst sat gazing across one of the bays full of moored boats and launches, we returned to the jetty to catch our ferry home to the mainland of Australia. The ferry was early and we were soon back at Hillary’s Boat Harbour (the quick journey was a lifesaver considering the fact we were once again sat next to the ‘knockout’ girl…) A couple of buses and a train journey later, we were back at Wanneroo. It had been a long day and we were both knackered. In fact, I’m falling asleep as I write this so I’ll bid you a goodnight and retire for the night right now. Night all.

January 8th, 2010 | Category: General, Photography | Subscribe to comments | You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed