High on quokkaine
Had somebody told me I was one plane, taxi, and ferry ride away from meeting a quokka, I’d have visited Rottnest Island, Western Australia much sooner. I mean, where else can you take a selfie with the world’s happiest animal? Dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh, got it wrong when he called these marsupials giant rats and named the island, “Rats Nest” instead of Cuddle Town.
Admittedly, my selfie wasn’t nearly as good as the one I hoped for (see #quokkaselfies), but it was one selfie more than I had when I started. I found this little fella by the bakery near the port alongside a few hungry friends.
Quokkas aren’t the only reason for visiting Rottnest Island though. There are a number of scenic spots to enjoy nature and take breathtaking footage to feed your Insta stories. We picked up bikes to cover as much as we could in the few hours we had and got to see Kingstown Barracks, Bickley Bay, Henrietta Rocks, Porpoise Bay, the red lakes, and Parakeet Bay then finished off with fish and chips and a cold one. And while my body would have preferred a much softer seat and the bike would have benefitted from a day in the Oil Can Spa, it did the job. We ordered them directly through the ferry service.
With or without the quokkas, Rottnest is beautiful and well worth a visit. We took the Sealink ferry from Fremantle and found it affordable, comfortable, and efficient. I even spotted my first wild orca breaching the surf. Other wildlife encounters throughout the day included, dolphins swimming along the shoreline, oystercatchers patrolling the beach, Australian Shelducks dipping their heads underwater for seafood, and more.
Experiencing nature tops my list when it comes to finding inspiration to write. The imagination barely has to work to know and appreciate the magic already around us. From the unique creatures to the wind-blown trees and dotted skies, beauty exists everywhere we remember to look for it.
While the list of places I want to visit feels endless, I would gladly return to Rottnest to experience the rest of what it has on tap and next time, if I’m lucky, snap a better selfie.
