We slept in until 8:30am, fairly late for our planned trip to Freemantle. We pressed on though and after a two hour drive pulled into town. By chance we passed a camp site and decided to get sorted before we did any sightseeing – a good thing too as we managed to get one of only two remaining camp sites in a huge camp and caravan park.
With that sorted, we rushed on into town, aiming to get the 12pm ferry to Rottnest Island – we made it just in time, but sadly their were only spaces left on the 4pm ferry, making for a very short trip.
It took 25 minutes to get to the island and by the time we got there we were starving. There were a few cafes near the ferry jetty, so we headed to the Dome cafe for a club sandwich and a ciabatta – both really nice. We then walked to the island store to get water, and then (very belatedly) starting planning what we should do.
We both had our own suggestion – Laura wanting to get the bus around the island and me suggesting that we just walk to the nearest beach and do some snorkelling. In the end we decided (well I thought we decided) to walk to the beach – this turned out to be a long, hot, boring slog over the island. I maintain that the bus ride would also have been boring, but agreed it would have been more comfortable.
Unfortunately not even the sight of a cute quokka (a small scruffy kangaroo critter) could cheer Laura’s mood, so we both trudged to the beach in silence – where Laura hid from the sun under a rock while I had a quick, unexciting snorkel – perhaps we were spoiled with Ningaloo!
I was barely in the water before it was time to hop out and head back to the ferry, where we eventually made up – by the time we got back to the tent we were happy as ever and skipped off to the docklands restaurant area to the very cool Little Creature brewery. There we had a delicious selection of beers and some amazing chips – as well as a so-so pizza and salad.
We ended our day with a trip to Baskin Robbins for far too much icecream, and went to bed happy – and for the last time to our wonderfully comfy tent!
