Visiting the Quokkas

Today is all about visiting the lovely furry animals called Quokkas, whose only known place of habitation is Rottnest Island 19 miles from Perth, off the coast.

But before we go on to talk about the Quokkas. Time to recap last night's dinner.

Simple and Italian

While I completed the blog post for the previous day, Drew looked at places to eat. There were a number of really appealing ones, but, each of the ones he initially spotted either weren't open on a Sunday, or were closing at 8pm, to early for us to squeeze a meal in. These at least where the reasons Drew gave, it may be that he had actually already decided and was just softening me up? As, observant readers will have noted, he has been wearing his 'Pizza Addict' t-shirt all day!

The restaurant that was both open on a Sunday and open until late was called Simple Italian Cocina and was 0.2 of a mile from the hotel.  We arrived at 7pm and while we were reading the menu I ordered the Mixed Pane Italiano, this delicious selection of breads from across Italy was served with salted butter and a delicious garlic and herb dipping sauce. The breads included a focaccia, a milk bread and two breads with stronger flours whose names I don't know in Italian or English.  

For starters Drew had Arancini, these delicious balls of rice were filled with basil pesto, mozzarella and hint of lemon zest and topped with honey mustard mayonnaise and parmigiano. Drew was really impressed by the Arancini, the hint of Rosemary gave it a vibrant kick and the cheese flavour ran all through it. There was a delicate bite to the rice, it wasn't a single gloppy mass as sometimes these are. 

I opted for the Salt and Pepper Fried Calamar, the squid was thick and succulent and the batter was light and crisp, the mustard mayonnaise that came as its dipping sauce was a good heat against the gentle flavour of the squid and batter. An excellent portion size too, for which I was very grateful. 

For his mains Drew choose, yes you know it, a Pizza - this was from the specials menu and was called: Pizza Rustica. It was topped with Fior di latte (a brand of mozzarella), potatoes, 'Nduja and mushroom. While Drew had had 'Nduja before he's not experience potatoes on a pizza. Also he has never had a pizza without tomatoes before. Drew says the pizza was an interesting variation on the theme, adding thinly sliced blanched potatoes to the other flavours gave the pizza a welcome starchiness to the flavour and offset the strong salty tang of the 'Nduja - he was very happy, and remains a pizza addict. [Co-pilot's note: It is, dear readers, the one true food group.]

I opted for Porchetta, rolled pork roasted in the Italian style with sprigs of rosemary and chunks of garlic. There were also herbs and garlic running through the stuffing with an addition of a kale pesto, carrots and crushed potatoes. I also ordered a side of sauteed broccolini. The fatty pork, with lovely crisped skin was delicious, the flavours of italian sunshine seemed to go well with us being in a sunny city by the sea. The vegetables were all cooked perfectly, without any loss of flavour and complimented the meat - but the meat remained the star of the show.

We got back to the hotel at 8.45 and were in bed by 10pm

Breakfast

It was one of those unusual occasions when I woke to the alarm at 6am. I normally am awake before it, but with my phone playing Johnny Cash's 'Daddy Sang Bass' as its alarm it is quite a rousing way to start the day.

I got up and did my ablutions, when I was drying from the shower Drew went in the bathroom to do the same. We were down to breakfast at 6.30am.

Haydn's First Course

Drew's Breakfast

Haydn's Energy provider breakfast

The breakfast was similar to yesterday's with some items added, including Chicken sausages, which I've encountered in the USA, but not anywhere else. I have a problem with the idea of chicken sausages - I don't know why, I understand the concept of beef and pork ones, so why not chicken. My guess is that I'm concerned that pork and beef are meat with plenty of fat, so the sausages will sizzle - Chicken, not so much. But, while I had some theoretical qualms I ate them alongside the other delights of the day. I had fruit for the first course and then the cooked breakfast, Drew started with the cooked and then went on to pastries.

We went back up to the room at 7.15am. and used the facilties before heading out.

The Trip to Wadjemup 

We leave the hotel at 7.45am and for walk down to Barrack Street Pier 4, a 15 minute walk back through Elizabeth Quay, where we had been the day before. Indeed we walked over the bridge which is often seen in photos of the Quay, which is for people and bikes, but with people having priority over the cyclists. 

It is a little cloudy this time of the morning, but the day promises to brighten up.

We get to the Ferry Jetty at at 8.05am, well before boarding starts at 8.15am. The process is very simple, all we need is the QR code on the email we got when we booked (I did this booking at the start of July, just to make sure we could travel on the day we needed. Given the large numbers on the ferry today, I'm very glad I did.

We got on the Ferry and were ready for departure at the scheduled time of 8.45am. We departed exactly on time.

Sitting on the upper deck of the ferry meant we got some great views of the long expanse of the Swan River. 

One of the crew gave us a commentary on the river as we travelled south. It provided an interesting insight into the history and current life of the river and its users.

First, we passed King's Park, which we had visited the day before and the Old Swan Brewery below it. The announcer confirmed that this park has a larger acreage than Central Park, New York. It is the largest city park in the world - not something I was aware of on our visit yesterday.

Further along the coast we came to the campus of the University of Western Australia. I've had a number of colleagues who have worked at UWA who I've got to now through academic conferences and discussions over the years. But I had no idea the campus was either so modern, or so close to the riverfront. If the university wasn't here this would be prime real-estate.  

The announcer reminded us that in the 1983 America Cup the team from Perth won on behalf of Australia, which it seems was the start of tourism to Perth, especially as the following year Perth hosted the Cup at home. 

The Swan River is 4 kilometers wide at the widest point and this makes it a challenge for people who live on either side. Compounded by the low depth it means that barges and flat bottomed ferries were the key boats (along with yachts and dinghies) from the coast at Fremantle up the river to Perth itself. The larger sea-going vessels weren't able to navigate the river, which is why Fremantle is so critical to the wealth and wellbeing of the City. 

As we continue down the river we pass the building known as Tuscan House, the Australian mining millionaire, Alun Bond, who funded the America Cup boat was the owner of this estate and it is now owned by his daughter. 

The next estate down the coast is owned by a millionaire who made his money from Lithium mining, lithium is still sourced in the region and is a much desired commodity at present.  

We come to Point Resolution, which is the limestone mine from which much of early Perth and Fremantle were built, limestone being such a flexible stone, as long as it didn't need to be moved great distances. 

The first Europeans to navigate the river was the Dutch explorer  Frederick de Houtman on 19 July 1619. The area had long been inhabited by Aboriginal peoples from a number of sub-tribes of the Nyoongar group of peoples. He saw a flock of indigenous Black Swans, so named river, the Black Swan River over time it has come to be the Swan River. 

It was also the Dutch who gave Wadjemup the European name of Rottnest Island, as, not being biologists or zoologists they assumed the Quokkas were Rats - yes the name in English would be Rat's Nest - appealing? I think I prefer the aboriginal name of Wadjemup - the land across the sea where the spirits/ancestors are.

We next come to the harbour at Fremantle. This was named for the first captain to arrive with colonists to the Swan Valley Colony which covered the river area. We plan to visit Fremantle tomorrow, so more about that then.

Arriving at Wadjemup 

We travel on from Fremantle Docks towards the island itself and arrive on time at 10.30am. We are provided with a lot of options during the visit, cycle rental, guided tours, bus travel but decide we can explore better in our own time on our feet.

So we head off on our walk. The route takes us from Thomson Bay, past Kingstown barracks on to Bickley Bay and Porpoise Bay before leaving the sea for a while and climbing up towards the centre of the island over the railway line, past the airport(!!) and on to Oliver Bill Lookout, then back past the lakes to Thomson Bay. 

This set of images capture some of the fun of the day.

The route is marked (ineptly, by me) on the map below in blue

You'll have seen in the Video above that we met a few of the native creatures of the island - the Quokkas - these friendly fellas is what brought us to the island. As when I told my sister we were flying in to Perth, she immediately said: I hope you are going to see the Quokkas. She had seem images of them in a Australia Tourism ad in the UK, which include Kylie Minogue meeting some along with telling you how nice the county is. You can view it here

It was made in 2019 and includes a now deceased Shane Warne, so in the spirit of being on this island, so important for good and bad reasons to native people I should say "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers should know that the programme contains images and voices of dead people".

Aboriginal - Wadjemup 

I mention the good and bad things on Wadjemup. The island is a significant place for Aboriginal people. It was once connected to the mainland and 6,500 years ago, Wadjemup was used by the Whadjuk Noongar people for important ceremonies and meetings, signs of this use still remain on the island.

But, and it is a big but, following the colonisation of Western Australia in the early 1800s, Wadjemup played an increasingly sorrowful role in Aboriginal history. European settlers established Wadjemup first as a prison, incarcerating thousands of Aboriginal boys and men from across Western Australia, then as a forced labour camp – known as the Rottnest Island Aboriginal Establishment - it was a bleak, unforgiving prison. Deaths were common and unmarked in most cases they were due to new introduced diseases. However, the transfer of Aboriginal men from the tropical climates of the north to the cold south also contributed to sickness and death - Source: https://www.rottnestisland.com/learn/history/aboriginal-history

The history of this period is well covered in the recent ABC programme called: The Australian Wars - it was shown recently on BBC4 and was a useful, if harsh, preparation for this visit - as I write it is still available on iPlayer in the UK.

Summary of the day

Our walk was 25,450 steps about 19 kilometers or 12.5 miles - an active day!

We arrive back at the Ferry Jetty at 3pm and prepare for boarding at 3.30pm. Leaving the island at 4pm and arriving back in Perth at 5.45pm.

Rather than going back to the hotel and then out again, we decided to move straight to dinner. The place Drew spotted yesterday closes at 8pm, so we were having an early dinner at 6pm. We booked our table on my mobile phone while on the ferry back from Wadjemup. The ferry has free wifi, so it all worked smoothly. Restaurants here in Perth take credit card details for all bookings, to avoid no shows, but that wasn't a problem for us. We very much intended to show up. But more of that in our next post.