Our fast ferry left Hillarys Wharf promptly at 10am and it took just 45 minutes to make the journey to Rottnest Island. I have never been here before but Philip had so once again it was a walk down memory lane for him. I must say that I was surprised with Rottnest. I guess I was thinking Island/Resort but of course the island has been settled on for a very long time and at one stage was a prison that held both war prisoners and aboriginal prisoners. We went into the museum where I watched a video of the conditions that the prisoners were subjected too. It is not pretty watching and it is a very dark part of Australian history.
Quolls are the first thing that you notice when you start walking around the Island. They are everywhere and even though there are numerous signs saying do not feed or touch these little animals it is not governed. Consequently where there is food there are many of these little critters. They jump up onto tables and we even watched one little Quoll searching inside an esky while no-one was watching. They are kinda cute though so they are forgiven.
As it was too early for lunch when we arrived on the island and we wanted to build up an appetite we walked to Bathurst Lighthouse and then on to Pinky Beach and The Basin. The scenery is stunning and once again can we please talk about the colours of the ocean! They are so many layers of different blues and it is just the loveliest scene. I have said it before and I will say it again, you just don't get these sort of colours on the east coast of Australia.
It was hard to chose where to eat lunch as there are quite a few places. We tried the Rottnest Hotel first but they were understaffed and the line-up to order lunch was out the door. As we walked to the Hotel we passed a lovely Italian Restaurant called Isola so we decided to back track to it to see if we could get a table. It was very busy but the Owner/Maitré D kindly found us a table. 
This was without a doubt some of the best Italian Food we have eaten. We started with the Calamari Fritti that was lightly breaded, as it should be, and even included calamari tentacles. The dipping sauce was light and tasty and was the perfect accompaniment.
Philip chose the Duck Ragú Rigatoni for main and I chose the Chicken Breast. When the plate was put in front of me I almost did a double take. The chicken portion was huge, almost half a chicken, and even included the chicken thigh bone. But wow, was it ever succulent. Chicken that has been crumbed and then fried can dry out very fast. I don't know how the chef prepared the chicken but it was fantastic. The Fennel, Apple and Rocket salad that accompanied the chicken was the perfect choice.
After this large meal we were looking to walk again so we spent the next hour wandering around the Rotto Village while we waited for the next Hop-On Hop-Off bus to arrive. The bus runs every hour on the hour and it takes an hour to circumnavigate the whole Island. We boarded the bus at 2.30 and we were told there was one more bus so if we wanted to Hop-Off anywhere we had a chance to still get back to meet the 4.30 ferry. Uh Uh. It was too close a call for us so we just stayed on the bus and enjoyed the ride. Rottnest Island is 19 sq. km and about 11km long and 4km wide. It is surrounded by beautiful oceans with numerous sandy white beaches that we saw many people enjoy. Sand Dunes rise periodically and then we have the typical scrub associated with coastal area. It really is quite a lovely Island.
This was without a doubt some of the best Italian Food we have eaten. We started with the Calamari Fritti that was lightly breaded, as it should be, and even included calamari tentacles. The dipping sauce was light and tasty and was the perfect accompaniment.
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