Gullivers Travels

Rotto as its known locally, is a sand island only 11km long and 4.5km wide. 19km off the coast from Freemantle. Superb white beaches fringe the isle, making up for the barren interior of salt lakes and scrub! Virtually car free, there is a shuttle bus and a tour bus which operates but we saw hardly any while we were cycling around. Everyone tends to hire push bikes to get around, it doesnt take long and is so liberating. There are a handful of historic buildings in the main settlment, but otherwise not much else to do except laze in the sun, try quokka spotting, diving, surfing or swimming - unless you go in winter like me!! You would need to plan well in advance for summer as its such and easy place to get to from Perth its so busy in the summer months. Me and Kaz went for the night and stayed in the YHA - Kings Barracks - It wasnt very nice. The bathroom is outside and was always occupied! There is nothing to do here and hardly anyone around. Its a bit of a trek from the main settlment where all the action is. Id stay in Geordie bay or Thomson Bay if I went again. The weather held out but was a little chilly, obviously the cycling around soon warmed us up! It felt like being at home = ) The views are pretty and well worth the trip over to see it. Quokkas are a cross between a wallaby and a rat! They are pretty cute and everywhere, the locals dont seem to mind them roaming around the restraunts - It didnt bother me but can imagine it would if you didnt like them. They are so harmless. We had a great time going around on the bikes, we took over our own and every bit of the place was picturesque. My favorite bay is Parakeet Bay - I would like to visit in the height of summer to laze on this beach and swim in the water - the colours are gorgeous. We went out for a meal on the Saturday night then to a Bar for Karaoke! Kaz went up for a very bad version of New York New York - 20 out of 10 for effort though! She ended up having a group of blokes helping out and you couldnt really hear anyone = ) We met some characters in the bar. A group we hung out with had been in a surfing competition that day and were up for a good laugh. Some of them performing Jack Ass style tricks!! I managed to fall off a skateboard and have some great bruises! We met Kemal, Matt, Simon and a few others. Kemal gave me a dink (which means a twos up on a bike) it was so funny, he ripped his pocket on the seat of my bike - funny I know someone who can fix that for him = ) The bike ride was very fast and furious down hill the whole way dodging drunken people and fence posts - we got to there place without a scratch and about 15 mins before everyone else. Kaz and Matt fell off but i'm not to surprised if you saw how drunk Matt was! It was such a good laugh. They were all really nice guys who topped off our trip. After a few Jack and cokes and some port!! I know... me and Kaz went back to the YHA, where what I can only describe as a horn was going off every 15 seconds throughout the night! I had the worst sleep ever. When we asked at the visitors centre the next day about it they looked at us like we were stupid = ) But honestly - dont stay there! We know what we heard and not the making for a peaceful nights sleep, we obviously didnt drink enough or we could of passed out and not heard a thing. We had breakfast then cycled round where we hadnt been the previous day before relaxing with the papers over a late lunch in Thomson Bay. The ferry was a bit rough but you get used to it within minuites and in no time we were back at home. A trip to remember ; )