Rottnest Part 1 of 2

Howdy sea-farers!

Well yesterday I went on my trip to Rottnest. So if you are thinking of making a similar trip yourself, maybe you can learn a thing or two from my experiences. Here is the main summary; I will post again later about some other random things that happened.

Let me quickly get the complaints out of the way first. Skip this part if you don't like negativity.

From getting in the car at Joondalup (8:30am), to stepping onto a beach at Rottnest (12:00pm), was 3.5 hours. Too long. The return trip was the same. Technically that's 7 hours travel in a day for 4 hours of available "snorkel time". Not worth it.

On the trip out, there were bogans next to us on the boat. Very unpleasant. Some sort of "bogan screening" at boarding time would be helpful here. Buses only ran every hour on the island. Not enough. After snorkelling we tried to enjoy some food and drink in Dome. They had closed the kitchen (4:20pm!). Ridiculous. We went to Red Rooster, which was out of stock in just about everything except fish and chips. Brilliant. Oh, and Quokkas -- one was eating scraps from underneath the table. Inside the restaurant. Hmmm.

Nothing happening! Parker Point at noon.

OK complaints over. The first of our two snorkels was at "Parker Point". Here is a photo of the bay. Pretty nice little spot, with great visibility (15 meters?). Unfortunately not a great deal happening under the water. But that never stopped me from concocting-- I mean, "sniffing out" a good story.

Here you can see a photo of the strange behaviour of an Angel fish. It was floating in a semi-vertical position near the seabed. This leads me to conclude that it was either dead, dying, or meditating. I would have said sleeping, but it's beady little eyes were open.

Zombie fish! An Angel fish levitates at Parker Point.

Now, educated readers will immediately notice that (a) it's not actually an Angel fish, and (b) fish don't meditate. But I think pictures speak louder than words, so kindly put this picture in your pipe and smoke it. Suggestions welcome as to what was wrong with this little fellow.

Finally, I would like to share another photo with you. Sometimes, when a camera is being used, everything will click. The lighting will fall perfectly, the subject will strike the perfect natural pose, and the universe will align in such a way that a picture is produced -- a picture which is beyond imagining. I would like to present such a photo to you, gentle reader.

I assume you've all seen the movie "Casino Royal" with Daniel Craig? The shot where he steps out of the ocean, pulling back his wet hair while getting the attention of the sexy horse-riding lady? I will say no more.

Watch this space for another entry which will include my adventures at the second snorkel spot (Little Parakeet Bay), some other photos and, hopefully, a video clip of myself duck-diving.

Keep the sun at your back and the seaweed at your feet!

-Gray