Rat's Nest Part 2

Fish Hook bay at the West end...

Some interesting rock formations...

Best place to have our lunch!

Our muruku from Malaysia finds itself on Rottnest Island!

These birds just flew into view as the photograph was taken...

toilet break...

Finally... we spot what we've been looking for!

The quokkas, with a large population on Rottnest Island, or 'Rat's Nest' island - so named because the original settlers thought they were rats...

One of the many beaches... next time we'll come back for snorkelling

Filling up on much needed water!

Exhausted after about 22 km of cycling...

A thunderstorm appears as we headed back to Perth by ferry...

We even managed to spot a few dolphins... back at last...

Rat's Nest Part 1

As recommended by our friends who came to visit us - Ka Sing and Chue Poh, Chris and Jane'nette - we finally decided to heed their advice and take a trip to Rottnest Island! In fact, we were so blessed to have some great tips from them on how to make the best of the trip!

It all began with the boat ride...

If you look closely, you can see the island just on the horizon...

We got our bicycles and helmets and began our journey around Rottnest!

Salt lakes abound on the island... no wonder Rottnest used to be the main supplier of salt to the whole of Western Australia...

And they've got this pinkish hue to them...

Bush and scrubland all over...

Urmmm... where to?

You can see the Perth city skyline from up here, not to mention great views of the whole island!

The gun at Oliver Hill...

The lighthouse...

We decided to cycle all the way to the West side of the island, also known as Cape Vlamingh...

Aha... the evidence...

Still a long way to go...

Pant pant...

Finally... after about 2 and a half hours of cycling (and walking), we arrived at the West end, 11 kilometres away from the main settlement where we arrived onshore...

Target achieved!

To be continued...

The verdict!

More than a month ago, we asked you to be our judge for what could become a potential marriage crisis. ;) We want to thank the 16 of you who joined in the fun!

THE VERDICT:


No. 1 was Kevin's
No. 2 was Agnes' - thank you, 2 of you who actually voted for her! Hahaha.

















P/S Our thoughts and prayers are with MMU CS Cyberjaya tonight... Too bad we can't be at the Agape Nite...

The Hottest Day Our Lives

Based on the weather forecast, we had anticipated that last Sunday would be the hottest day we had ever experienced so far, not just in Perth, but in our entire lives! 43 degrees Celsius!

So what did we do? After church, we decided to head into town for some free air-cond!

We'd heard that Perth dim sum was supposed to be better than Malaysian dim sum, mainly due to the many people that have migrated here from Hong Kong. This restaurant was ok only la... next time we'll try another one.

So we then headed to our main destination for the day - the Museum of Western Australia! We thought we'd get some free air cond and at the same time learn about some Australian history. There was also this Dinosaurs Alive exhibition that was going on there. It cost us $17 each to go in, and what a disappointment it was!

there were only about 6 dinos on display, and they didn't even bother to put some nice backdrops to make it look more realistic!

 We went on to the other exhibits in the museum, which were free and much more rewarding!

We also paid a visit to the State Art Gallery which was just next door. We weren't allowed to take photographs, so we don't have any to share here. We enjoyed the aboriginal art that was on display. Other than that, we couldn't really appreciate many of the so called modern art. Both of us agreed that we could do just as well as any of those people! Just a line here, a dot there... mess it up, and we've got a piece of artwork! ;)

Anyway, the art gallery closed at five, so we had to leave.. only to find that it was still above 40 degrees outside!

Operation Blue Manna

On a warm Saturday, we decided to take a trip down to Mandurah. We wanted to kill 3 birds with one stone:

1. Test our car (mainly the engine) to see if it could travel to Mandurah which is 74km away, and back in one piece.

2. Get rid of a rainbow trout that had been in our freezer for a few months, and probably not fit for human consumption anymore.

3. Catch blue manna crabs for dinner!

So we grabbed our drop-nets and headed down south, only to get caught in a traffic jam on the freeway due to an accident. Kevin managed to navigate us out of the crawl and back onto the freeway via another way. We were about 20km from Mandurah, when we heard a rumbling sound coming from the car. Had our worst fear just come to pass?

We quickly stopped at the emergency lane... and behold...

A flat tyre!

Thank God... we felt so relieved that it was only the tyre and not the engine!

All done and ready to go in 15 minutes, under the sweltering summer heat (37 degrees Celsius). No sweat... literally! Not a single drop, thanks to the dry summer air!

We arrived at Mandurah for lunch at Miami Bakehouse, apparently one of the best bakeries in Australia.

Munching on crab pies and steak pies

Then it was off to work under the bridge! In the 2 hours of crabbing, we only managed to catch 4 crabs in total - and all of them were undersized! We threw them back, of course. We have some theories as to why it was so:

1. There were too many people catching crabs that day - an asian couple had about 20 nets hanging around the jetty!

2. Our bait wasn't good enough - other people seemed to be getting the crabs

3. Our nets weren't sinking deep enough to reach the estuary bed - the others were using rocks to weigh their nets down

4. We didn't pray hard enough!

5. Chris and Jane'nette were not around!

Our rainbow trout bait.

Our biggest catch of the day, sadly just 1mm short of the minimum size. :(

To add to our disappointment, we had the 'pleasure' of meeting some not-so-friendly Australians there, including a young kid who kept using the four letter word on us just because one of our nets got slightly entagled with his.

Mission Failed!

No crabs for dinner... next try then!