Rottnest Island

A short ferry ride away sits Rottnest Island, which must be one of the best, if not the only, state-run holiday islands. The island has a somewhat sad history, having been used as a prison for Aboriginal people for a period in the early 20th century, but then was taken over for defensive purposes during World War II and then some visionary decided that this wonderful holiday destination should become state property rather than being privatised to make sure that ordinary citizens could enjoy it in perpetuity.

Another visionary decision was to keep the island largely free of cars. There is a public bus, a small train line and a few utility vehicles as needed, but the holiday visitors primarily use bicycles to get around the 20 km2 island and visit its many beaches and snorkelling spots.

The first spot was neat because you could snorkel around a small shipwreck, a boat that came free of its moorings in Fremantle and ended up sunk just off the coast of Rottnest. Above water, it looked like a rusty boat hull, but underneath it was a seagrass and coral garden that was barely recognisable as a boat.

The second spot was really cool, with a range of different corals and an underwater trail to follow - although the sea had worn away most of the words on the underwater signs. The temperature was perfect for beaching, if a bit hot for cycling. Rio had to work hardest on his little bike with no gears, and there were a few reasonable hills, but the occasional well-timed appearance of candy seemed to help him overcome the challenge.

And even better-timed appearances of cute quokkas by the side of the road helped morale too.

On the other hand, the appearance of the venomous long black slithery dugite snake was less welcome for some of us snake fearers.

Our flat was pretty nice, with a view of the dunes and ocean. Chris and I got out for a sunset walk while the kids vegged out. We were a little worried by a search party for a missing 5 year old who had wandered off during a scavenger hunt from a gaggle of 20-odd kids, but we assumed she was found as the calls died down.

Sunday we started with a visit to the WWII very large gun (9 metres) at Oliver Hill. The tour guide had an unusual accent, Aussie with a hint of North American, and turned out to be from Nanaimo but living in Perth for 25 years. The mechanics of the massive gun were highly impressive, and it was easy to imagine the tough routines of the military personnel working there.

Another dugite siting very close by, and a few massive spiders. Good views from the hills, reminding us of how surprisingly close Perth is yet feeling miles away from the busy city bustle.

After the military site, we cycled back into Thomson Bay and the kids got to play in the inflatable water park in the heat of the midday sun while Chris and I watched from the shade sipping iced coffees. Some traditional Aussie pies for lunch at the bakery, and then a final snorkel at The Basin. Saw a stingray and some different fishies.

Saturday 2 November

Day 3 of England's first Ashes warm-up match against a "weak" Western Australia XI who scored 451/5 declared. Chris, Sol and Rio headed down to the WACA with its huge towering floodlights to watch England bat in reply. Finally a chance to get up close to our cricketing heroes. Starting the day at 270/2 with Trott and Bell on overnight 50s saw some beautiful shots, especially from Bell who was creaming the cover drives:

The ground was quite empty, probably only a few thousand there, so we had a choice of seats and moved into various spots during the day, mostly close to behind the bowlers arm, but also hanging out on the sloped grassy bank square of the wicket that will be our home for all of day 3 of the third test. After half an hour I can confirm it's not very comfortable sitting there on the grass, so don't know how we'll manage for a whole day (have to take a cushion). Bell and Trott both completed centuries and then Bell retired just after the second new ball had been taken in order to give the other batsmen some practice, but they all got out cheaply.

At first we had been disappointed that Cook, Broad, Swann and Pietersen weren't playing in this game, but that actually made it easier to see them up close as they went to the nets in the ground to practice. Sol and Rio soon become more interested in the goings-on in the nets than out in the middle and after a short while Rio was aiming to collect autographs on his new floppy cricket hat from as many players as possible. He even managed to get Bell's signature when he inexplicably ended up fielding at 3rd man for a couple of overs to add to the signatures of Cook, Swann and Tremlett. It was nice that the England team were happy to stop and chat in the ground. Here's Cook signing Rio's hat and saying something about where he played when he was young.

Broad was also having a bit of a bowl in the nets but it was not going too well, so time for the double tea-pot.

Sol got to pose with England's backup keeper Jonny Bairstow, who due to an injury to Prior, might be featuring in the Ashes after all.

For the older readers like me, I was excited to see Goochy the batting coach, but without the trademark moustache.

Thoroughly sunburnt, we left early as the game petered to a draw, Rio clutching his "enchanted" hat. Must have done some good because Rio put in a terrific performance at his cricket match the next day.

Wednesday 30 October

The England cricket team arrive in Perth for the start of their Ashes defence. Rio wants to go to the airport at midnight to see them arrive. We say no. He wants to find out which hotel they are in and go there. We say no. Then, the day before they start their first match, instead of practicing at the WACA like usual, they came to our local cricket field, across the road from Rio's school, to practice there. Rio cycled home from school oblivious to the presence of his heroes just past the car park. We only find out the following day that they had been in the same nets that we use and had a mini-game in the middle! Here's a picture of Kevin Pieterson batting in our nets and in the second picture Rio's school is just behind the car park in the background (photo credits to Floreat Subiaco cricket club):

LAST holiday post

I had to get this up so that Chris can start posting about all the cricket that's been happening since we came back from holiday. Here's a short one from our drive home (lots of photos!):

Day 16: Kalbarri to home

On the way back to Perth, we stopped at a fascinating site called The Pinnacles. It’s a large region, protected as a park and geological research site, made up of sand and these cool rock formations. The pinnacles range from quite small and frail to stout and fairly tall, and they cover an amazing area. Only part of that area is accessible because of the surrounding sands. It was neat to be able to walk around them and try to imagine the geological processes taking place over thousands of years to form them. There are different theories, but the most plausible one was related to trees, acidification and limestone. (Sorry, I forget the detail). Chris spent some time trying to get cool photos, including ones with the moon sitting atop of the pinnacles (he succeeded but I can't put portrait oriented photos on the blog because they show sideways). But once again I was just trying to keep one step ahead of the flies and not inclined to hang out and admire for long.

We also passed the Pink Lake on our way back. Although it was highlighted in the guide book, it wasn’t enough of an attraction to warrant a sign from the road. So we kept waiting for the turn off to the viewing point and it never came. We did get quite a good glimpse of it from the road as we drove past, and it was spectacularly pink. I can confirm, after flying over Australia on my way to Brisbane the following week, that there are lakes of all kinds of wacky colours around the country. In addition to vivid pink, there are some bright yellow lakes, as well as white ones, and then all shades of blue and green.

Penultimate holiday post

(For those of you confused by the chronology of our holiday - my apologies - it has taken me a very long time to put these posts up, so we are now long since home from our trip. More up-to-date posts to follow soon, I hope.)

Day 14 Kalbarri: Up early for a canoeing adventure down the Murchison River. Two other families of four turned up and we were all were transported by 4WD van along roads that made the previous day’s ride seem smooth. When we arrived at the launching spot, it turned out that ‘self-guided’ really meant ‘self-guided’ – our van driver saw us off and then drove down river to cook our breakfast. The canoes were shorter and wider than Canadian ones, and the paddles were more like kayak paddles than canoe paddles – but we got used to that pretty quickly and I ended up thinking that kayak paddles are pretty handy in a canoe because you don’t have to worry about doing the J-stroke.  It was a fairly easy paddle downstream for the first two legs, to breakfast and then to the swimming hole. But then the afternoon wind picked up a little early, and we had to work fairly hard for the final 2 km stretch. Luckily we had stuffed ourselves at breakfast so had the energy to fight the wind. We were treated to lots of bird life again, including lots of sea eagles diving for fish and lots of stately pelicans.

In the afternoon, Chris and the boys went to Jake’s Bay to look for a good body boarding site, while I wandered around town and checked out the gift shops and bookstore. The beach they found had good waves but was too rocky at the shore to feel safe with body boarding, so they found a different spot that was calm and had a swim/Waboba.

Day 15 Kalbarri: Cliff-top whale watching hike along the Bigarda trail was the morning’s entertainment. I have to admit, I didn’t really think we’d be seeing whales, but the woman at the visitor’s centre said she had seen some a few days ago and if we were lucky... The hike was beautiful, along cliffs whose base was made of the Tumblagoorda sandstone, underneath about 15 metres of Tamala limestone. 

The ocean was turquoise and aqua, dotted with small whitecaps turning to big foaming froth at the shore. I jokingly offered a big handful of Doritos to the first person to spot a whale – but sure enough, Dorito-loving Rio suddenly spotted a humpbacked whale flipping out of the water in the near distance. The humpbacks are migrating south for summer, passing the Western Australian coast from May through October. The last ones to come past are the mums with their babies. They jumped and splashed for quite a while before continuing on their way down the coast and we on our walk. It was tricky to watch our footing as well as keeping an eye out on the ocean, but we managed to spot several more groups of humpbacks by the time we came to the end of our hike. 

However, we still hadn’t seen any of the southern right whales which were supposed to be visible closer to the shore. We watched and waited quite a while at the final view point, but not until we started walking away did Chris spot a right whale spouting and swimming at the surface. They are much shyer than the humpbacks, or at least they are less interested in playing about in plain sight. It flashed us a bit at the surface and then disappeared again – until we walked away again, and up it spouted. It did this several more times before we eventually had seen enough to feel that we’d got our dosage of right whale viewing.

After lunch we went to the Blue Holes, marked on the tourism map as a good spot for snorkelling. We warmed up with some beach cricket, managing to retrieve the ball when it was slogged into the water. However, the water was blue but not very transparent, and the only fish we saw while snorkelling were a couple of cute little brown spotted guys and a tiny black and white striped fish. The ‘holes’ were created by a small reef making some sheltered pools with much smaller waves. We gave up on the snorkelling and enjoyed our final relaxing beach time before the drive home tomorrow.

We splurged on supper at The Restaurant Upstairs, some more delicious fish and seafood (and another veggie curry for Chris). I got to try Barramundi, (thanks for the recommendation, Dave H.!) but chose prawns for the accompaniment rather than peppered kangaroo.