Rottnest Island (Western Australia)

I don’t know what this island, which is 19 km from Fremantle and into the Indian Ocean, looked like when the Dutch discovered it about 200 years ago, but despite being surrounded by a reef and white sand beaches (check out the picture), it was given the name “rat nest.” This is what Rottnest means in Dutch. Why? Well, the island is small, about 4-5 km wide and 11 km long, and has thousands of quokkas, a marsupial the size of a cat rather than a rat, but the Dutch thought they were simply rats. Especially if the Dutch descended on the island at dusk, maybe seeing so many of these creatures made them also think they were “another “ invader… You can see from my picture that a quokka looks a lot more innocent and (hopefully!) larger than a rat. But the highlight of this boutique island (round trip ticket for adult, $72.5; bus ticket for the day for a hot bus that runs only every 30 min in a one direction loop, $10; cup of coffee $4.5) is its natural beauty, as always. The water is diverse shades of blue, turquoise and green as if it’s block colors being mixed on a painter’s palette, and snorkeling in the reef is a deeper trip into that palette of colors. There is life everywhere and highly dense, from birds to fish and of again quokkas. Speaking of fish, we stopped at the island’s information center as soon as we arrived on the island and asked where to go snorkeling. We were told that any bay is rich in reef and fish, but THE Information Centre omitted to tell us that the day before a 5-m great white shark had been spotted in one of the island’s bays… I am writing this post using both of my hands, so yes, we didn’t encounter any shark! From an ecological point of view the island is paradise, too, as no cars are allowed, just the lame tourist bus and bikes. Birds nest on the island’s shores and salt lakes in thousands. Only the museum reminded us of just another penal colony of Australia and fishing that led to the extinguishing of some species…