Never was I more
grateful for being taught how to ride a bicycle than when I arrived on Rottnest
Island and realised there were no private vehicles (and few public transport
options). My friend said we’d take bicycles and explore the tiny island on two
wheels. It sounded good.
As we wheeled our
bikes off the ferry and made a quick stop at the bakery for some lunch I
distractedly searched for quokkas in the background, until informed they are
nocturnal so were all fast asleep. Ah.
We headed out of
the island’s main settlement, Thomson Bay and cycled west. Within a few minutes
of leaving we were cycling along the road that runs in a circuit around the
island flanked with incredible sea views to our left. The water off Rottnest is
a beautiful deep blue broken up with patches of crystal clear turquoise. The
colours are incredible.
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| Cycling Rottnest Island, Western Australia |
Hills
Whizzing along
with the sun on my back and the sea breeze in my hair, this seaside cycling was
all going very well considering my complete lack of fitness. I was surprised at
how easy I was finding it until we came to our first hill. I was being careful
on the bike I had borrowed and had slowed down enough that I wasn’t going to
make it up the hill. Some furious peddling later and I was whizzing down the
other side of it. As I got used to the lack of traffic, the borrowed bike and
got a bit braver frankly, the hills became easier to negotiate.
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| Cyclist enjoys a rest on Rottnest Island, WA |
Flies
The flies however
did not. Western Australia has a lot of flies in summertime and they are sticky
and persistent bastards. You’d think that while cycling they wouldn’t be too
much of a problem as you are continually moving. While sunglasses kept the
majority of the flies out of my eyes and keeping my mouth tightly shut kept me
from flossing corpses out of my teeth at the end of the day, there was no
simple solution to keeping the flies out of my ears (I hate having anything in
my ears, especially a ‘buzzing’ something) so I suspect anyone witnessing my
cycling exploits may have thought there was something seriously wrong with me
as I pedalled along batting my arms about occasionally taking swipes at pests
invisible to anyone but me. My friend certainly got a laugh out of it.
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| The loop road around Rottnest Island, Western Australia |
Wildlife
We settled on one
of the beaches for a while and recovered, me from my exertions and my friend, I
suspect, from the amusement of it all. When we returned to our bikes I was
delighted to find a pair of quokkas casually hanging around the bike rack. I
proffered my hand and it was received with a sniff and a lick. The quokkas
hopped around me hopefully for a few minutes but, having come to the conclusion
that I wasn’t going to feed them, quickly went back to their scratching around
on the ground.
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| Meeting quokkas, Rottnest Island, Western Australia |
We headed back to
Thomson Bay stopping periodically to take in the views and also because my friend’s
pedal had snapped off… When we limped back into Thomson Bay we could barely
move for quokkas. Clearly they had woken up and were out in force looking for snacks.
Our cycling
adventure had not been without its challenges but had been satisfying. I loved
the beaches and seeing wrecks peeking out of the water added character and
hinted at Rottnest’s history. The quokkas were also surprisingly friendly so provided
quite the interactive experience!
Have you been to
Rottnest Island? Did you cycle around?
