Rottnest Island

Brad and I visited Rottnest Island for two days for his birthday. It's so close to Perth and is beautiful! We had an early start as the ferry departed at 7.30am and arrived at Rottnest just after 8. We went straight to the hire shop and got two bikes to start exploring, but before we set off we stopped at the bakery for a jam donut for me (obviously) and a pie for Brad.

As the island is quite small you can literally cycle round it in about 5 hours and stop off at beaches and lookout spots along the way. On the first day we went round the bottom half of the island, stopping at the most amazing little bays and having a snorkel round. Stupidly, we didn't take much notice of the warning signs and ended up cycling round for 5 hours with no water, as there is literally no shops, toilets or water fountains along the way. Me being the drama queen I am- I declared I was on the verge of dehydration; so we decided to head back to the settlement and check in at the hotel. 

The island is so small, so there isn't many places to stay. As it was Brad's birthday we just decided to go for Hotel Rottnest over the campsite and it was a lot nicer than we expected! Our room was right round the corner from the bar, so naturally we went straight there and we had pimms for me and a G&T for Brad. We ordered two seafood pizzas and just snacked on them for the evening. After spending $200 on drinks (that's our sensible backpacking budget) we decided to head to the jetty to watch the sunset. After deciding I was not capable of riding a bike drunk, Brad took a cycle to one of the beaches we had seen earlier to watch the rest of the sunset.

The next day we checked out of our hotel room, enjoyed another breakfast at the bakery and headed for the other half of the island- with plenty of water this time. We snorkelled round more beaches and Brad spotted a little octopus! The GoPro came in very handy and the sea was so clear so it was a good place to get footage and some pictures. The water was so calm at the bays and just further out you could watch the surfers on the bigger waves.


The second day we did less cycling as we had to be back to catch the ferry back to Perth at 4. So we just chilled out along the jetty with some ice pops and fruit. Brad was having fun jumping off the end, until he decided he didn't like being the only one in the water in case he got eaten by a shark, he also nearly lost his big toe to a crab.. Sealife 1- 0 Brad.
It was a lovely couple of days and Brad thoroughly enjoyed his birthday. It felt like a holiday from a holiday and we would definitely go back to Rottnest again. The only thing that was a little annoying was the price of everything; with the ferry, the hotel and bike hire amounting to quite a bit. However, as it was Brad's birthday we don't regret spending the money at all, because we wanted both our birthdays to be amazing whilst we're away!