Day 9 - Cycling on Rottnest Island

After a lovely sunrise, enjoyed from the window of the bedroom in our villa, and a simple breakfast, we set off to pick up our hire bikes.  Since we arrived we have discovered that Rottnest Island is maximum tourist in summer and for schoolies etc. We are fortunate enough to be here in the off season with very good acceptable clear and warm weather in the day time. So on collecting our bikes we were amazed at seeing that the bike hire place has the largest collection of bicycles we have EVER seen in or lives - hundreds and hundreds.

We took off to circumnavigate the island.  It is a rugged but beautiful coastline, with very blue ocean and white sand and many inlets and secluded bays. We eventually arrived at West End at the opposite side of the island to where our accommodation is at about midday. Having taken our lunch we sat and looked over the vast Indian Ocean and were thrilled to see a whale spout in the mid distance (humpback whales are migrating past Rottnest at this time of the year).

Riding on we discovered the lighthouse at the highest point of the island and it is still in operation despite being built 1898.  We embarked on the lighthouse tour with a voluntary tour guide and a flock Korean students and climbed the massive spiral staircase to be rewarded with a fabulous view of the whole of the island. Again we are grateful that it has been an amazingly clear day and we could see the skyline of Perth CBD and the suburbs from many vantage points across the Ocean.  There are also several ships at any time  on their way in and our of Fremantle that we can see.

 

We settled at a vantage point to the lighthouse to finish our packed lunch and out came the watercolours and the sketch books to have a go at the lighthouse. Our creations appear below.

Roman Catholic Chapel

Returning to the settlement via a couple of inlets and bays and viewing points we parked the bicycles at our cabin and took off on foot to explore more of the village.  The Anglican services are held in an ancient chapel (once part of a home for boys) and the Roman Catholic church has built a more recent but delightful Chapel which was most impressive for visitors - including an invitation to ring the 8 carillion style bells - which of course we did!

Ray's Watercolour



Glenys' sketch





















We returned to our Villa and cooked up a nice little feast for dinner which was accompanied by a good bottle of local red wine.