During my trip, I'd already passed through Perth twice, and had stayed at two different backpackers. Neither of them had screens on the windows and I got eaten alive by mozzies. This time I decided to stay at the YMCA, which is more expensive, but better quality accommodation and they have screens on the windows. As it turned out, I had all the windows shut anyway. The day before I arrived, Perth had sweltered in temperatures of 36°C, but the wind had changed direction and it was now blowing from the south and the temperature had dropped to 24°C. I had to put long trousers on for the first time in weeks. It felt quite strange.
My flight left at 4pm on the Friday, which left me plenty of time to dive on the Thursday. I booked with Dolphin Scuba in Fremantle to go out to Rottnest island. I thought the price was a little high at $120, but they told me that it included lunch. When I got there, they sorted out the kit I was hiring, which was only tanks, weights, wetsuit and fins, and drove me down to the jetty. We were actually going on the Rottnest Malibu Dive boat. I didn't ask why we weren't on the Dolphin boat.
The trip out to Rottnest was pretty rough. There was a 2.5m swell coming in from the south and, every now and then, the boat would slide down the side of a wave which was quite unnerving. Unfortunately there's only room in the cabin for about 6-8 people, so it was a bit of a squash. Sitting outside wasn't an option unless you wanted to get completely soaked in minutes.
At Rottnest it was quite sheltered, though our choice of dive site was going to be restricted. A load more people came on the boat there and they started to assign buddies. I was buddied up with a rather nervous Dutch girl, who had only done 9 dives. She also hadn't been diving in 18 months. However, looking down the list, most of the people had done less than 10 dives, so I didn't really think it was worth complaining. We then started to kit up and I ended up putting three people's regulators on the tanks because they couldn't remember how to do it. Not a good sign.
The first site was called Grouper's Caves, because there used to be blue groupers there until the spearfishermen killed them all. We stayed pretty shallow at around 13m and the viz was a pretty good 15m. The site itself was a ridge of limestone with lots of overhangs and swim-throughs. There were a few fish, including the strangely named Old Wife and the dive was OK, but nothing special. My buddy was fine after she'd overcome her apprehension and we managed the allotted 45 minutes dive time. I did make sure we got back to the rope, and that she held on during her ascent in case there were any problems. Getting back on the boat, one of the other groups told us they had seen a manta. They were the only people to see it mainly because they'd gone in completely the opposite direction to the one we were told.
After the very short boat ride back to the jetty, which I spent shivering in a corner, we unloaded the cylinders and went to get lunch. And lunch was rubbish. It consisted on a cheese salad roll, a small bottle of fruit juice and an apple. That was it. The only choice you got was whether you wanted a green or a red apple. I was totally unimpressed. If that's the best they can do, I think they'd be better off not bothering. There is a takeaway cafe nearby. I would have rather gone there.
The second dive was at a site called Armstrong Bay. There's a limestone ridge which runs parallel to the shore and could easily be dived from the shore. In places it was very shallow and the maximum depth was only 7m. The dive was similar to the first one, though there were some bigger caves in the rock. There was also a large patch of seagrass and various fish feeding in and around it. Again we did 45 minutes.
The trip back was rougher and so we all had to cram inside the cabin again. On the way back I found myself asking why I'd bothered. The dives were OK, but nothing special, though I'm sure there are better ones around Rottnest. The weather did restrict our choice of sites, as did the total lack of experience of most of the other divers. I think I'd been a bit spoiled by the previous ten days in Exmouth, but I think it was probably the worst dive of the whole trip. I would dive Rottnest again, though I think I'd probably go with Perth Diving Academy next time.
That night I went out for my last night in Australia and found a pub called the Moon and Sixpence. They had about 20-30 different beers, including loads of English ones. They also had their own brew called Nail Ale and, as it was on special offer, I stuck to that. It was pretty good and hadn't been artificially carbonated, so it wasn't quite as fizzy as the normal Aussie beers. There was live entertainment on too. There was a guy playing acoustic guitar and a woman singing and they were pretty good.
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