Tues 13th Jan

Tues

Woke this morning to some very sad news - poor old Mitzi had died. She had been very content, eating and purring and tottering about, then just lay down, went to sleep and never woke up. All thanks to Lindsay and Shan again - not only did they nurse her to the end, but Lindsay then drove from near Bromyard to bury her in our garden, who could ask for better friends?
We set off after that for Rottnest Island,a popular holiday island for Perth. The ferry was worringly packed, as much with bikes as with people - no cars on th island- but they soon all disappeared to various bays and trips when we landed. It's a delightful place with some of the oldest buildings in Australia pretty coves and beaches, but best of all it has quokkas. What is a quokka? Well, it's the hobbit of the kangaroo family - no more than 2 feet high with furry feet. They are the most adorable creatures; as they're ncturnal the best time to see them is the evening when they hop around the buildings and go through people's wastebins, but while we were there they were mostly under the trees - except for one who was making a bid to break into the supermarket. By illicit means which we cannot reveal, we made great friends with one little family, who allowed us to stroke them-one of the best moments of our trip.Then we had a quick swim just to say we'd swum in the Indian Ocean, and strolled back to the ferry - another great day, another place we'd love to go back to.
Our last evening with Mal and Colleen, lovely meal and a quiet chat. They looked after us spendidly, and like so many people on our trip, we can't thank them enough.

Obviously we are catching up on this well after arriving home (Thurs 22nd) and have had a message from Erica today to say that Lake Wendoree in Ballarat has inded been on fire - don't know how badly, but the whole town smells of it.