Anyone for Quokka
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
107
131
Trip End
Jun 2009
Margaret River,
Western Australia,
Australia
Sunday, November 2, 2008
It was an hours journey from the centre of Perth to Freemantle, Freo as the locals call it, and before long we had parked up and decided to head to the tourist information office in order to find some acommodation for the evening. A local market was on in the town center and almost immediately both Rachel and Mum got side tracked by the "Precious" and Shiny things" like magpies to milk bottle tops we had lost them. My father and I proceeded with the job in hand and went to speak to the lovely woman in the visitors centre. After a hysterical laugh shortly after I had asked what was availible in freo this evening for 4, we realised that with the "Red Bull Air Race" in Perth in a couple of days, Freo had become pretty much booked up, as was Perth. Accomodation was going to be a bugger to find and after a number of phone calls we came away with 2 options, neither being particularly exciting propositions. We sat on a bench, I apologising to both my parents that after 1 day I had managed to leave them homeless ! Rachel on the phone seeing if there was anything else we could find. All of a sudden 1 place said they had somewhere for us, it was a cottage which was a little pricey, but we could go and see it immediately. It was up by the old prison and was one of the old keepers cottages - It had been fully restored with many old features from the 1920 - 1940s when the house was in its hayday. It was a winner and both Mum & Dad were impressed - to be honest, so were Rach and me ! It was the most luxury we had had in months!!.
We spent the afternoon wandering around Freo with my father remenicing on the old days and what had and hadn't changed - pretty much most of it had. Freo has some lovely little back streets with old victorian and edwardian houses in near perfect condition and with a law in place banning any new developments over 3-4 stories high it would remain so for quite some time to come. The only exception to this rule is the badly designed control tower which overlooks the huge endless harbour front - looking like a 1960's Hyson Green highrise.
We introduced my parents to the joys of woolies supermarket and decided on a cooked chicken and salad for dinner along with a couple of beers as the following day would be a long one. We all slept soundly in our turn of the century beds and awoke to another beautiful blue sky. We packed up and headed over to the ferry terminal for the Rottnest Express, arriving in plenty of time to check in, somewhat distressed when we realised 400 school children would be joining us on our 'Quiet' day out.
Rottnest Island is a haven for wildlife, being named after the large rat like creature found there when it was originally explored by the dutch in the 1600's (Rott being Rat). These creatures actually turned out to be marsupials and have since been named Quokka's. It was turned into a penal colony in the 1820s by the british and is now a favorible getaway for many Perthsiders especially around the holdiay time when accomodation is almost impossible to obtain and a yearly lottery in the local perth and freo newspapers decides who gets the rooms during decemeber and January. The Island is about 25km long and 14km wide with a series of lakes across the middle and stunning coastline all around. We had decided to rent a bike each for the day, thinking that it would be the most economical way of getting around the island at our own pace. And so it was, we managed to cycle from one end to the other, without too much discomfort for all of us, stopping at the furthest part of the island for lunch, watching some seals playing in the water and the fragile coastline getting battered by the sea's. Upon our journey back we came across a couple of highly venemous Snakes (Dugits) which mum wasn't so sure off as well as some skinks and numerous Quokka, some with babies in tow. There are very few cars on the island, which makes it amazing to cycle around and easier to spot wildlife and with the weather once more being on ourside we all had a brilliant day - Sore bums aside!.
It was 5.30ish before we arrived back on the mainland and we had already decided to make the 2 hour drive to Bunbury, chosen for its locality to Margaret River which would be our destination the following day. We booked into a Cabin on a Big4 campsite, 2 bunks and a double bed with a Kitchen to seperate the 2. Because it was late we decided to drive into the town centre to find some fish and chips - which after some searching we found right on the sea front, Red Snapper and others, freshly caught and battered with the sunsetting behind us - a great end to a brilliant day.
Up an out early once again we drove the 2 hours to Margaret River. With Rachel needing to be at the bus station for 4.30 we had little time to get around all the vinyards, so chose a few and rather than booking on a tour I offered to be the designated driver. Rachel, Mum and Dad sampled what was on offer, enjoying on the whole the Unwooded chardonays to the overly oaky ones, before a trip to eat some cheese and a brewery saw me giving in and having a quick sip!. We ended up at the Colonial Brewing Company, where we again sampled a couple of the local beers over a tasting platter in the gorgeous sunshine before the time had come to say goodbye to Rach and take her to the bus for her flight back to Sydney and the arrival of the 2nd set of Grey Nomads - Mr & Mrs E.
I left my parents at the Colonial and took Rach to the bus station. It was a faily hideous fairwell, even though it was only for 3 days, we had not been apart from each other for the past 18 months!.
Safely on the bus Rachel raced her way to Perth Airport and I returned to my parents to check into our guesthouse for the night. A little remote, right on the edge of town, but in lovely settings, run by a woman originally from Lancashire. It was a lovely place with Kangaroos visiting in the middle of the night, as we found out later. We decided to ditch the car and walk into town, a walk of about 30 minutes - passing my mums first view of wild roo's which she found brilliant. We ate french that night (Don't tell my dad!) and I introduced them to BYO aussie style. We chatted all evening, for the first time in many years I felt closer to my parents on so many levels. Full up on beer and fine food, it was a cab ride back to the ranch. Before bed I sat on the veranda talking to Rach when a couple of Roo's bounced into the Garden for a feed, Mum once again was really impressed - If I could keep this up for the next 4 weeks it would be a breeze!!.
