Quokka adventures

For all my international people here is a mini kangaroo, officially known as a Quokka. This little fella (or sheila) is about a foot tall and even more adorable in real life. They are found on the small island of Rottnest just off Perth. Every time I see one it takes a whole lot of self control not to try and stuff it in my suitcase. I've been holidaying at Rottnest (Rotto) since I was a little kid and I still rekon it's one of the most beautiful places in the world. Yesterday some mates and I took a day trip on their boat to the island for some Sunday ocean fun.

I get chronically sea sick. Doesn't matter how long I live on a boat for it still happens. I even threw up on anchor once in the Caribbean. The ride to Rotto took over an hour but I made it without bringing up my breakfast. Once we arrived a few of our group went diving but I opted to take the small tender half way around the island on the hunt for some surf. I found toe biter midget sized waves to surf. On the positive side the only other critter sharing the waves with me was a big fat seal. No weekend warrior crowds. I got beat on the ride back in the little tender though. Thought I was going to get thrown out a few times and my back is killing me.

I felt pretty crook when I finally got back to the big boat but I still wanted to go diving. I was scuba certified in Panama but it has been years since I've been, so I sorted my gear and headed out. Once I made it down to the bottom my mask started to fill with water. Being seriously out of practice I tried to clear it the wrong way and the whole thing flooded. I was holding onto my dive partners arm shaking him and pointing up to the surface. He had to grab my mask and show me how to clear it. I almost panicked down there. Then to top things off my slightly infected ears wouldn't equalize which resulted in a bad headache. I gave up and came back to the surface. I tried to signal the boat to pick me up for 15 minutes by waving my fluro yellow swim fin in the air but no one noticed. In the end I gave up and went back down for a while, it was easier to be on the bottom of the ocean with an earache than bobbing around in the waves on the top. We eventually got picked up.

By the time we started back for Perth it was evening and I was wiped. I focused really hard on the horizon the whole ride back and tried to find my happy, non nauseous place. We had almost made it back home. I could see the lights of the wharf getting closer and closer. Then we got the radio call. Our friends who were sill over on Rotto on the smaller tender had broken down half way round the island and needed rescuing. We turned back and headed into the black ocean to retrieve them. Luckily a few fish had been caught while scuba diving and we were forced by extreme hunger to gut and cook them on the boat ride back. The broken down tender was tied to the main boat and towed back. We finally arrived at the marina around 10pm, salty, stinky and ready for bed. On the bright side the evening produced a beautiful sunset and I got to spend a little time hanging with the quokkas.

Bellow: Me passed out on the boat, my friend Matlida watching the sunset.