We were really looking forward to today! It goes to Rottnest Island, an island about 20 km from the mainland from Perth. Here you can find the Quokkas – the happiest animals on earth 🙂
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Rottnest Island’s company
Rottnest Island is a small island near Perth off the coast of Western Australia, 18 kilometres west of Fremantle. Rottnest Island is 11 kilometres long and 4.5 kilometres wide and has a population of just over 300. The name of the island comes from the Dutch explorer Captain Willem de Vlamingh, who gave it the name “Rotte nest”, which means rat nest. The reason for this was that Willem de Vlamingh considered the numerous quokkas to be large rats. The island is very popular for day trips and can be easily reached by ferry from Freemantle. Although it is accessible for tourism, motor vehicles are prohibited. However, there is the possibility to explore the island by bus, bike or on foot. Rottnest Island is an important habitat for rare species such as the Quokkas, as it could be kept free of predators such as foxes and rats.
The ferry connection to Rottnest Island
In advance, we had already bought tickets online for the ferry Rottnest Express. The ferry to Rottnest Island has 3 different departure points. From Perth itself, there is a daily connection at 8.30am. Since the journey takes a good 2 hours, we would not have been on the island until about 10.30 a.m., which was too late for us. An earlier possibility is e.g. from the station B-Shed Fremantle. Here the start is already at 7.15 in the morning and the ferry takes only about 30 minutes from here. As a return trip we decided for the ferry at 3.55 pm to Barrack Street (ferry terminal in Perth). So you have enough time to take full advantage of the day on the island 🙂
In the morning at 6.30am we took a taxi from our Perth hotel to the Fremantle B Shed ferry terminal and were there in time.
Getting around Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island is a good 11 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide and there are actually only 3 ways to get around the island: you can either use it on foot, with a bus (which always travels in a circle and stops at different points) or with the Explore bicycles – there are no cars on Rottnest Island. We chose the bike version because it is the most flexible option. The bikes can be booked directly together to the ferry tickets and we have paid a total of AUD 110 (approx. 75 €) per person for the ferry + the bike.
We got our rented bikes right after getting off the ferry and then we were told: saddle up, off we go! The helmets should not be forgotten, because here in Western Australia helmets are mandatory for all motorcyclists and cyclists. We wanted to completely circumnavigate the island. That’s a good 22 kilometers. The bike path is very well developed. But since it is very hilly, sometimes you have to pedal quite nicely to get up the small hills. At over 30 degrees, this is often quite exhausting.
A map of Rottnest Island
The Quokkas on Rottnest Island
Our first goal today was to find and find quokkas. Quokkas are small cute short-tailed kangaroos and for us the decisive reason why we wanted to go to the island. Here there is the largest population in the world – about 4000 – 8000 quokkas live here on Rottnest Island. The quokkas are especially well known because they are not shy at all and you can take super funny selfies with them. We had seen the selfies with the quokkas in a report and wanted to try this out. Since many pictures look like the animals are smiling, they often have the nickname: “Happiest Animal on Earth” 🙂
Since it wasn’t so warm, we were really lucky and the first quokkas were not far from the bike path. And also while we cycled all over the island, we saw again and again some – sometimes protected from the sun under the bushes, sometimes next to a picnic bench and sometimes at the side of the road. We’ve really taken an incredible amount of pictures of the quokkas because we find them so incredibly cute ❤
Selfies with the Quokkas
And of course we can’t miss the selfies with the quokkas 🙂
Once by bike over Rottnest Island
We had all day to drive across the island. At first it was still quite fresh,but with time it became really warm. On the route there were always viewpointsthat invited you to linger.
All in all a great day on Rottnest Island and with the Quokkas ❤
All travelogues from Western Australia
We visited Australia for the first time during our world trip in 2015. Here we were mainly on the east coast (Sydney, Brisbane, Airlie Beach and Cairns), in the south (Adelaide, Great Ocean Road and Melbourne) and in the interior of the country (Ayers Rock). We liked Australia so much back then that we definitely wanted to see much more here. And what we completely missed was the west coast. Here we put together a great self-drive route for almost 2 weeks to get to know some of the highlights of the state of Western Australia.
» Perth – Tourist Attractions & Kangaroos on Heirisson Island (Australia)» Perth – The cute Quokkas on Rottnest Island (Australia)
» The sand dunes in Lancelin & the Pinnacles Desert (Australia)
» Hutt Lagoon & the Kalbarri National Park (Australia)
» Danham – World Heritage Drive & the Shark Bay (Australia)
» Monkey Mia – The wild Dolphins in the Shark Bay (Australia)
» Coral Bay – Diving & Snorkeling at the Ningaloo Reef (Australia)
» Exmouth – The Cape Range National Park (Australia)
» Exmouth – Swimming with whale sharks & mantas (Australia)
» Exmouth – Diving at the Muiron Islands on Ningaloo Reef (Australia)
» Perth – The Koalas in the Yanchep National Park (Australia)