G’Day Australia!! We arrived in Perth at 4am, tired from the
flight we waited in the arrivals lounge until 6.30 to collect our hire car. We
decided to drive straight to Freemantle, or ‘Freo’ to the aussies, about an hours drive from Perth, where we
would spend our first night. Having not driven for about 3 years I made the
most of the quiet roads and drove around the town whilst we looked for a
hostel. Coming from Asia it was a bit of a reality check to find out how
expensive Australia was!! We paid the most we’ve paid our whole trip for two
dorm beds in a really crappy hostel… on the up side however we finally had a
kitchen after 6 months that we could make our own meals in!
The first full day in Freemantle we took the ferry across to
Rottnest Island. We hired bikes and cycled around the island on the coastal
track stopping at various deserted beaches along the way. The sand was incredible…pure
white and literally like powder! It was like walking on flour J The water was crystal
clear…and freezing, Mike made it as far as his thighs and retreated back to the
beach. I think six months in Asia has made us soft! In the afternoon we went on
a whale watching tour with Rottnest adventure tours.
We all strapped into our
seats on this huge speed boat and before long we were crashing over the waves
bouncing up and down…it was like a roller coaster ride and absolutely
brilliant! The wind whipped in our faces as we tried, and in my case failed,
not to scream. We hadn’t even seen any whales and were having an awesome time
and then in the distance we spotted a huge whale emerging from the ocean. We
had to keep a 100m distance from the whales but the skipper had said if they
approach us then what can we do?! And they did…we saw four huge humpback whales
and one of them must have been 15m from the boat. To start with they were
flapping their huge fins on the water, communicating with each other. Then one of them started to
breach the water doing huge jumps right up out of the water – it was absolutely
incredible!! They were huge!! We stayed with the whales for about half an hour
watching their display before they continued on their journey, migrating north
for warmer waters. We then continued our
rollercoaster ride round to the south tip of the island to visit the resident
New Zealand fur seals. They were cute, lazing in the sun on the rocks when we
arrived and then they all slithered off into the water to bathe. There were
hundreds of them, all bathing with one fin in the air in order to catch the
cool breeze and help thermo regulate. The crew were very good at giving us lots
of information about both the whales and the fur seals and all in all it was a
brilliant trip, we would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Rottnest,
or should I say ‘Rotto’ at the time of the whale migration.
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| The breaching humpback whales we incredible! |
From Freemantle we continued south down towards the wine
region of Margaret River. We had a brief stop on the way in Rottingham for Mike
to swim with dolphins. I’ll hand over to him to tell you about his adventures.
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| Lined up waiting for the dolphins |
‘After my failure to get
close enough to the dolphins in Indonesia I was very keen to have a proper go
at it in Australia. The dolphins off the coast of Freemantle are completely
wild, but the skipper has built up a friendly relationship with those that have
inhabited the area over many years. Donning our wetsuits we headed out on the
speedboat on the hunt for dolphins. After two hours driving around we spotted a
large pod of dolphins and the excitement on the boat was electric. We were
given a snorkel and masks, but instead of diving straight in had to enter the
water slowly and quietly to avoid scaring them. We formed a line in the water
holding onto the person’s wetsuit in front of us to avoid excess splashing. The
person at the back of the line had to wear a “Shark sheild” band wrapped around
their leg, which was supposed to emit a magnetic punch on a shark’s nose if one
came within several metres. With 7 fatal shark attacks in Western Australia, 4
of them in the last 18 months, we were happy for this extra precaution.’
‘One of the tour
guides had an underwater scooter and she was driving around below us, making
circles to attract the dolphins. The other guides would then shout “faces in
the water” to ensure we didn’t miss any of the action. The only problem was
that the water was so cold that it almost took my breath away even with the
wetsuit on. Being used to the 30 degree water of SE Asia the 17 degree water
was a real shock! When the dolphins approached it was amazing! They were
swimming around us, underneath us performing twists and somersaults underwater.
They were playing with the instructor who was driving the scooter doing laps
with her. After 5 minutes we got out of the water freezing to warm back up,
while another group went in. Although only 5m deep, the sea had a sandy bottom
which meant that the visibility was impaired. It was a shame as sometimes the
dolphins would appear out of seemingly nowhere and often made watching them difficult.
We dived back repeatedly over the morning with the dolphins coming so close you
could touch them if we weren’t told that it was not allowed! Despite freezing
temperatures and murky water it was still an amazing experience and worth every
penny…..next stop Margaret River wine region.’
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| Freemantle |
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| Rottnest island |
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