Watch out world - we're coming back!

Friday 3rd October - We're back at the Crowne Plaza at Changi Airport in Singapore, paying a bit extra to avoid having to check out and spend five hours hanging around before Etihad check-in opens and we can get rid of our heavy bag. I upgraded the baggage allowance to cover all the extra goodies we're bringing back, but actually they only add about 4kg to the total (and the heavy stuff is for us!). We flew here from Perth with Scoot, Singapore Airlines new long-haul budget offshoot. You pay extra for all the frills, including hiring an iPad if you want to watch movies (we didn't). We got a "Super" seat with excellent legroom in the "Silent Scoot" part of the cabin (no children) for a very good price. They didn't have my prepaid food on their manifest but sorted it out when I showed it to them on my printed itinerary. It was a very good salad, but a Toblerone and a can of iced green tea was a bit of a strange dessert. When descending into Changi the pilot suddenly opened all the throttles and went round again, which was a bit disconcerting. After we landed he explained it was because of a flight control malfunction, they went back up to go through the check list and sort it out - the plane was an ex-Singapore Airlines Boeing 777, probably wouldn't have happened with an Airbus where the wings are made in Bristol.

On our last day in Oz Linda and Ross showed us round a bit of the local neighbourhood, including the rose garden they used to own, which they hired out for weddings. We took their dog round one of his regular walks, and the wildlife proved obliging again. Kangaroos watched us warily, but the dog is elderly and no threat. He took no notice of the big, slow, lizard that Ross found, which stayed nice and still for photographs. The only drawback of the route was that it was also followed by horse riders, and the evidence of their progress meant that the fly population was numerous, and excessively friendly.

We're really grateful to Linda and Ross for showing us so much of the southern part of WA, and being such kind and generous hosts. Now it was time to tear ourselves away and head to the airport and home via Manchester, arriving early on an October morning. It may prove to be a bit of a shock to the system.

Sunset over the lake from our room at Rottnest. Wind turbine provides power for the desalination plant for the island:

One of the magpies that come when called by Ross, they will feed from his fingers:

Not a bad bird to have nicking your flowers - an Australian Ringneck parrot, known as a 28 because of its call:

Kangaroo keeping watch on us:

Final pic of Aussie wildlife, a Western Blue-tongue Lizard (he seems to have lost a bit of his tail):

Nearly done!

Tuesday 30th September - We're on Rottnest Island a few miles offshore from Perth getting out of Linda and Ross's hair and having some R&R in a Premium Lakeside room at Rottnest Lodge. The advertised internet connection at the hotel has just been taken out to be replaced by a wifi network - unfortunately Telestra have connected the optical fibre but permission has not yet been obtained to install the wifi equipment in the historical part of the hotel. So I'm sitting outside in the shopping area where there is free wifi and a very noisy crow, which has just left a large deposit a few feet from where I'm sitting - first world problems!

After being shown Perth by Linda and Ross, and returning the van, we went with Linda for three nights in a chalet near Dunsborough in the Margaret River wine region. By chalet think Swiss alps rather than British beach - two double bedrooms each with its own bathroom, huge lounge/diner/kitchen with log stove (which we needed, it was cold the first night). We had a great time looking round the scenery, wineries, craft galleries etc., and finished with a great walk around Cape Naturaliste lighthouse. We saw distant whales, lizards small and large, a snake which was too quick for my camera and a swarm of bees which we gave due respect and a wide berth.

Returning on AFL Grand Final day I managed to catch the second half with Ross to explain what was going on - which was that Hawthorn (his late Dad's favourite team) were thrashing Sydney Swans, and it continued completely one-sided. It ended with Hawthorn winning by 21.11.137 to 11.8.74, which is comprehensive, and pleasing to Ross as he had $10 on them at 2.5 to 1, not bad odds for a two horse race. The next day we visited a very high class craft market at the University of Western Australia, where we completed our present shopping, and then had a walk round Lake Monger to tick black swans off our must see list.

The next day wee went down to Freo (Freemantle) to board the fast ferry for a bouncy 30 min trip to Rottnest Island. Rotto (as it is inevitably known) is a beautiful small island (11km long by 4.5km wide) with no cars, but lots of hire bikes and a hop-on/hop-off bus running around the coast. It's usually a peaceful, mainly family, destination except for one week in the year when school-leavers gather to get blotto on Rotto - not what we were aiming for. We avoided any stress from biking and did a couple of nice walks where we encountered virtually no other people but did get to see a lot of wildlife, including great birds, very fast lizards, and a large (1.5m) highly venomous snake - which we kept well clear of.

The main feature of Rottnest is that it is one of only a few places where you can still see quokkas. According to the field guide, the Quokka is a small, secretive, mainly nocturnal wallaby. However the Rottnest quokkas don't appear to have read the guide. You can detect them either from a rustling in the undergrowth or from a tickling sensation around your feet when having a coffee. The few shops on the island have small anti-quokka swing doors, like a saloon bar for munchkins.  At dusk one appeared on the other side of the flyscreen on the verandah of our room and tried to look appealing. Their similarity to very large rats did not endear them to Louise, and led to the naming of the island by the 17th century Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh. Apparently "Rotte nest" is Dutch for "rat nest".

Pretty good view from the bar at the Wise winery (note to picture editor, sea should be turquoise):

Greeting the locals at our Dunsborough "chalet":

Tucker is not bad at Leeuwin Estates winery:

Next stop Antarctica, looking over the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Margaret River (note turquoise sea still missing):

Useful info for whale watchers - would be really useful if they were less than a kilometre away:

A cooperative lizard, I only got pictures of the tails of the uncooperative ones:

Pleased with this one (no idea what the beetle or flower are):

Not bad birds to have flying round a uni car park, rainbow lorikeets at the University of Western Australia:

Black swans on the Swan River:

Sacred Ibis performing the entertainment role of a duck in a UK park:

Looking back to Perth from Rotto (turquoise sea becoming apparent):

G'day mate, got any food?:

Louise adopting a quokka defensive position:

Secretive, mainly nocturnal - bah!:

Rottnest Lighthouse, 4.5km into our 10km walk, temperature 31 degrees C:

Pink Lake - a pink lake, caused by specialised algae able to survive in water four times as salty as the sea:

Geordie Bay, no Newcastle accents heard, but got the turquoise sea nailed now:

The quokka equivalent of Mum taking the kids out begging:

Treat this one with respect - probably a Dugite, "Dangerously venomous, bite can be fatal". We didn't get close enough for a definitive identification: