Thanks to two aspirins I wasn't in too bad condition after the long plane journey from Heathrow (changed planes in Singapore.) I got window seats which I find gives me a welcome few extra inches of space to rest in. Rosemary and Gordon of the Adventure game website Quandary met me at the Perth airport which was much appreciated. They live in Fremantle and showed me around some of the sights there as well as kindly putting me up for three nights.

I've known Rosemary and Gordon for a few years through my interest in Adventure games (their website has some of my articles and reviews on it.) I'm more than happy to travel halfway round the world so I can just be with people I value. Friendship is precious.

On the 2nd I took the Rottnest Explorer to Rottnest Island which is visible from Perth and Fremantle. Rottnest is a convenient holiday spot for the Perth area and was very busy. Holiday chalets cluster around the landing area. They're at least designed to blend in with the older buildings and covered in an acrylic matching the light orange lime wash used of old (rusted iron was added to the lime producing the orange colour.)

I didn't see much of Rottnest. Did the Quokka walk to see Rottnest's famous marsupial inhabitants. Cute approachable squirrel size efforts which the Dutch mistook for rats (they named the island in Dutch as Rats' Nest .) The quokkas are well established on the island but have declined drastically on mainland Australia thanks to predation by introduced foxes and cats. They need copper in their diet to breed. Also did a semi-submersible outing to see some coral and fish and two of the wrecks in the area. But I didn't get my act together to see most of this island.