Thursday 28 May 2009

Cycling around Rottnest

On Tuesday we caught the ferry over to Rottnest, a peaceful little island off the coast of Western Australia, leaving Nancy and Robert to rest for a day or so!  Rottnest has a laid back atmosphere with lovely beaches, beautiful views and the added attraction that the main way to get around is on bike.  We stayed overnight and while the accommodation was a bit grubby we had a fantastic two days.  

We hired bikes for David, Peter, Joe and I and a trailer for Luke.  Joe and Peter were delighted to have bikes again and while Luke was devastated that he didn’t get his own bike he soon began enjoying travelling in the bike trailer.  After a quick lunch stop (where a peacock tried to steal Joe’s pie…much to his distress!) we headed out for a cycle.  The maps of the island were fairly poor…not all the roads seemed to be marked, but at least the kids didn’t mind doing a couple of circles before hitting the road properly!  

Joe was in his element the whole time we had the bikes.  The highlight of the two days for him was ’riding fast’ and he was fairly quick, he embarrassed some struggling teenage girls as he sped past them with ease!  Joe was so happy as he cycled along, chatting away while his little legs worked overtime - he seemed to have endless energy.  David and I just enjoyed watching him and were so proud of how well he did, as we cycled over 30km over the two days.  

Peter also enjoyed being on the bike and he spent a lot of the time riding out front leading the way.  He got a bit of a shock on the first day when he cycled over a snake!  This was a bit too close an encounter, even for  Peter, who loves animals and nature!  

Rottnest is home to a marsupial called a Quokka, which looks a bit like a large rat.  Most of the quokkas living on the island are fairly tame and they always have their eye out for food, one of them had a good look into the bike trailer as Luke was sitting munching his crisps!  As well as quokkas we also saw pelicans (which I thought were amazing), peacockAdd Images (which Luke was very impressed with) and Peter spotted some jellyfish in the water while waiting for the ferry.  

We were all tired out by the time we got back on the ferry on Wednesday, but we had a fantastic time on Rotto!


Nicola
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

What power zone did you ride in? Strava?