Rottnest Island and Margaret River

Our most recent travel experience was one Kristi had been excited about for a while. We flew to Perth and visited two locations. The first was Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth. The main attraction here was numerous beautiful beaches easily accessed via bike from the main township.

The island is also one of the last strongholds of the Quokka, a small marsupial mostly missing from its original range due to introduced predators. 

We also drove a few hours south of Perth to Margaret River and enjoyed some forest walks and even more beaches.

It is also a popular Australian wine region and we took in a few vineyards and tasting rooms.  All the vineyards were incredibly child friendly, which was a nice perk. Our favorite was Swings and Roundabouts, which had excellent wine and an epic playground that kept Cata busy for 2 hours!

The novel wildlife is also a draw for us when we visit Australia. On this trip we encountered some cool birds (like this Pied Cormorant) and a few other species we had never seen before.

Silver Gull - Nesting in a rocky coastal area

Baby Quokka - Into and out of the pouch

Humpback Whale

Eastern Gray Kangaroo

Common Bronzewing

Brown Honeyeater

Great Crested Tern

Singing Honeyeater

King's Skink

Laughing Kookaburra

Red-winged Fairywren

Red Wattlebird

Red-eared Firetail 

 

Fan-tailed Cuckoo