News
Australia - Week 2
Posted December 1, 2008 05:31 PM
This past week we have been having a blast in Cottesloe. Our little apartment right on the beach is a haven. We've been walking or cycling everywhere and getting to know our way around quite well. The weather has been perfect - sunny but not too hot. As we're right on the ocean there's always a lovely breeze blowing, though in the evenings it can be quite blustery and cool.
We took part in a 1km ocean swim on Saturday morning. It was the first year for the event and the organizers had hoped to set a world record for the number of participants, however they fell a fair distance short of the WR. It was still a fun and well organized event to be a part of.
Yesterday we cycled to Fremantle (about 10kms away) and caught a high speed passenger ferry to a small island called Rottnest. This island is a cycler's paradise and half the people on the ferry had their bikes with them. There are roads all over the island and only a few vehicles there. No permanent residents but there are holiday cottages and one resort. As we were waiting to board the ferry I noticed a fellow ahead of us with an Ironman tattoo on his leg. We said hello to him and actually ended up spending the day cycling around the island with him. Richard is from the UK and spending 3 months in Australia touring around. He's doing the race on Sunday as well so we're going to link up with him in Busselton for the carbo load party etc. Cycling around the island was fantastic - we spent about 3 hours cycling and the other 3 hours sitting in cafes having coffee/lunch and gabbing about all things IM with Richard! The highlight of the day was seeing some Quokkas, small marsupials, that live there. These little darlings are about 12 - 15" high when sitting on their hind legs and are very docile and tame - quite used to tourists gawking at them. The two that we saw came scurrying over to us in the road and even allowed us to pet them and rub their ears. It was awesome!
We're off to Perth today (Tues) on the train to pick up a passenger van for a week. We'll use it to transport the bikes/bike boxes and suitcases to Busselton on Thursday morning. Busselton is about 2.5 hours south of Perth. Then next Tuesday we'll drive back to Perth and fly out to Sydney for the last leg of the trip.
