Over the last few days Emily and I have cycled around Kings Park and Rottnest Island, and I have turned 23!! On Thursday Emily and I hired bikes and we cycled along the river in Perth to Kings Park, which is at the top of a hill and has lovely views of Perth and the surrounding area. There was a tower to climb that was called the DNA tower because it was made of two spiral staircases twisting around each other like a double helix. At the top there was a man who started talking to me about what Perth looked like 20 years ago without a freeway or any skyscrapers... "and look at it now - and they call that progress!". I got the feeling he didn't like change as he was also complaining that there was a tree that had grown so big it obstructed the view south. But he pointed out several landmarks to me which was handy! The day was lovely and the park was much fun. In the evening we were knackered but Mari, one of our roommates, persuaded us to go to the pub next door where we met some right crackers who I cannot even begin to describe on the internet!

We spent Friday on Rottnest Island, and we hired bikes again. We got the ferry across at about 9.30 and saw some rainbows, and as we were in the shed collecting the bikes it started chucking it down and thundering and lightening! We had our waterproofs and the rain eased off after a while, but because the bike shop people had to get the 4.30 ferry home we only had about 4 hours on the bikes, which didn't give us much time to get round. No one, not even the Lonely Planet, has ever mentioned that there are so many hills on Rottnest! But the views were lovely and quokas are very cute. They are native to Rottnest and related to wallabies and kangaroos and just mosie on around the settlement - they're about as prevalent as squirrels are at home. Once we handed the bikes back we had absolutely enourmous pizzas in the Quoka Arms, and then walked to a lighthouse to see the sunset. It was cloudy, but stunning. The beach by the lighthouse was peaceful and flat so it was easier to walk on. I've put up some pictures of Rottnest today.

Yesterday we had planned to go to Scarborough again for my birthday but it turns out that the buses do not run on a weekend so we stayed on Cottesloe beach for a bit and when I got back Kirsty, one of our roommates, had put balloons on my bed and had bought re-igniting candles for my cake! They were so much fun, but made a lot of smoke so I had to half-hang out of the window so I didn't set off the smoke detector! In the evening Emily, Kirsty, our roommate Shauna and I went to Little Creatures in Freemantle, which is a massive bar/restaurant in a brewery. It was a lovely atmostphere and we had a table with a view of the harbour. We all tried the Little Creatures ale too! I had a lovely, calm, chilled out birthday :)

Today Emily and I are packing up ready for our Greyhound trip to Cervantes tomorrow. We will be staying there for two days and hope to see the Pinnacles before we move on to Northampton for two nights, and then Kalbarri. I hate packing!!!