What’s not to love about these cute little animals that really are the

face of Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth, Western Australia.

There is an estimated population of around 16,000 Quokkas on Rottnest but the ones seen by the tourists hang around the cafes where they wait for food scraps from careless diners.

There are prominent signs everywhere asking you not to feed the wildlife and also not to pat them or pick them up. Now this is hard, because they are extremely cute and ‘pattable’! And they are very cunning at darting through gates that have been placed to keep them out of eating areas! Between quokkas and crows you had to guard your food carefully or it would literally disappear before your eyes!

Rottnest Island was named after these little animals by a Dutch explorer way back in the 1600’s, rottnest being Dutch for rats nest – and I guess these animals do look like overgrown rats! However, they are marsupials and related to kangaroos. They have pouches that their joeys grow up in and they hop like kangaroos, although their hairless tails look more like a rat’s.

There is much more to Rottnest Island than quokkas though! As there are no cars on Rottnest Island the choices are

• do a bus tour or
• hire a bicycle to ride around the island.

My fitness level took one look at the bikes and the hills and immediately booked the bus tour!

I’m so glad we did! Our guide was most informative – and entertaining with it – and we learnt so much about the history of the island as well as visiting several of the 63 – yes, 63! – beaches there.

Here’s some of my favourite photos of the day.

The darkness in the sea is caused by sea grasses that are a protected species as worldwide they actually provide more of the earth’s oxygen than the Amazon forests! That little known fact was something new I learned on the bus tour!

What a fabulous day! Our ferry left Fremantle at 9.30am and we arrived back there at about 5pm. You can probably see by the blue skies that the weather was perfect, the wind only light and the ferry crossing smooth. Lunch at the pub was a bonus looking out over the water.

I discovered there’s a lot more to Rottnest Island than quokkas and I enjoyed every minute of my day trip there.