2nd December - Happy Birthday, dear Marike. We celebrate you on Rottnest Island.

Please be patient. I will only have time to fill the blog with today's experiences between 10 and 11 am Central European Time.

Not quite right: There is Wi-Fi on the ship. So here is a first entry.

An impression we had yesterday and which is confirmed today: apparently Australians are a very sports-loving people. They already run very early in the morning, even on this Sunday morning. We encountered them in droves at 8 o'clock this morning. Young and old. Fascinating.

Today it is supposed to get very hot: 27 to 30 degrees Celsius. I think you won't notice it in the shade because of the wind. However, the felt temperatures in the sun are even higher.

It's hot.

We rode our bikes around part of the island.

Inland there are salt lakes that shimmer pink (photo). This is due to a certain type of algae that causes this discoloration. Individual salt lakes are also dried up and therefore white.

Quokkas are running around everywhere, small marsupials about 30 cm tall when they stand up (photo). The island is named after them. In the 17th century, a Dutch seafarer thought they were large rats and therefore named the island 'Rottenest', which means 'rat nest'. The quokkas are not shy but rather curious. The wish that people should not feed or pet them exists but is hardly fulfilled. Especially children have a hard time with this. But also many adults.

The water has intense colors, light blue, turquoise, dark blue. The photos hopefully show this, they are not edited again. Rottnest Island is located in such a way that a current brings warm seawater from the equatorial region here.