Stay: Fremantle Village $38 powered
It was forecasted to be a beautiful day so we picked today for our trip to Rottnest Island. 
The island has been a popular destination since the 1920’s. Earlier than this it was primarily a horrible prison. People come here for the varied water activities, to learn about its settlement history as well as military history. But possibly the most well known inhabitants are the quokkas, a small marsupial that are very photogenic..
It’s only a 30mins ferry ride from Fremantle. So we drove in to the terminal, paid $10 for all day parking and purchased a ticket on the next ferry to leave which happened to be with Sealink (Rottnest Express also leaves from here at different times but for the same price). 
So we arrived at 9:30am on the Island and quickly proceeded to the Bus stop to get on the 9:45am HopOnOff. (Bike hire $30 is popular but 22km of undulating roads wasn’t for us. There are also various bus tour options). The intervals are every 45mins so you need to plan. The round trip takes 1 hour/approx 22 km, but of course the idea is to get off at several key areas an explore the island. As we only have one day we took the drivers advice getting off at Parker Point then walking to Salmon Bay.
We asked the driver of the next bus if he could drop us off near Oliver Hill Battery. It was a 15mins walk up to the gun emplacement built here as part of WWII defences. We managed to have a quick look around (it is possible to do 1 hour tunnel tour $9) before making it back to the road just in time to hail down the bus 45mins later.
Views of Perth..
Unfortunately the lighthouse and signal ridge area is closed atm so we continued on the very west end of the island.
So we arrived at 9:30am on the Island and quickly proceeded to the Bus stop to get on the 9:45am HopOnOff. (Bike hire $30 is popular but 22km of undulating roads wasn’t for us. There are also various bus tour options). The intervals are every 45mins so you need to plan. The round trip takes 1 hour/approx 22 km, but of course the idea is to get off at several key areas an explore the island. As we only have one day we took the drivers advice getting off at Parker Point then walking to Salmon Bay.
We asked the driver of the next bus if he could drop us off near Oliver Hill Battery. It was a 15mins walk up to the gun emplacement built here as part of WWII defences. We managed to have a quick look around (it is possible to do 1 hour tunnel tour $9) before making it back to the road just in time to hail down the bus 45mins later.
In 45mins here we were able to walk to the end of the boardwalk to admire the beautiful coastline and wave action.
Then we went to have a look at the seals from another platform only to be told someone had seen a whale here this morning…long gone now!
The beaches and bus stops along the northern side are popular for surfing, snorkelling, swimming, fishing and boating. There are walking tracks that go all over the island too but more time is needed to do these. As we were not partaking in any of these activities we continued on to Geordie Bay. Some of you may have recently heard of this place as the accommodation here was used for Covid-19 quarantine.
After a bite to eat we went on quokka hunt. As we walked back to Thomson Bay where we need to get the ferry via Bathurst Lighthouse, we were rewarded with quokka selfie opportunities….
We read a few history interpretive boards in the settlement area where the buildings are now used for accommodation.
Feeling happy with our day so we popped in to grab a beer at the pub watching the quokkas hop and a peacock strut around. We didn’t quite get blotto at rotto… but it was a nice end to our visit. 
Once back on the main land we had a walk through the old part of Fremantle looking for a place to eat and enjoyed some Vietnamese food.
There are some lovely period building in this area. Then it was back to camp..
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