Kayaking to Penguin Island

On my day off I went Kayaking with my father and my sister to the islands off Rockingham in Western Australia. My father owns a kayak, but since it is only a 2 seater, we ended up going on a tour with a guide and a group of people from Tasmania.

We got to Rockingham at about 9am and a short time later the bus load of tassies and the kayaks arrived. Everyone helped carry all the kayaks down to the beach and we were all given life vests and snorkel gear and then told the plan for the day. Each sea kayak fits 2 people, so i went with Suzie and my father went with one of the tassies. I sat at the back of the kayak which meant i would be responsible for controlling the rudder. It took me quite a while to get the pedals in a comfortable position where i was able to use them without hitting my knees against the top of the kayak.

You can see the islands from the beach at Rockingham so its pretty hard to get lost while kayaking towards it :) We set off and headed to the right side of Seal island and out towards to ocean, this was used to get everyone comfortable with using the rudder and the paddles. It took a while for some of the Tassie blokes to realize they actually had a rudder, which was very funny as they were going everywhere but where they were supposed to. After paddling around the back of the island we headed towards Rockingham again, there were a lot of Pelicans just sitting out on the reef which was very cool. A massive pelican took off right next to me and it was amazing to see such a big bird trying to fly, unfortunately i was too busy looking at it to take a photo.

Around the corner and you can understand why the island is called Seal Island, as there must have been at least 40 massive male Australian Sea Lions sunning themselves on the beach. Two big males went into the shallow water and started fighting and everyone went right in for a closer look. I was getting very close and at one point was about a meter away from these massive seals fighting, realizing (after taking photos) that i was WAY too close i started back peddling to get a little bit of distance between the seals and me. It was then that one of the two males got annoyed and charged at me, it was coming straight for me at high speed and jumped to attack me! I freaked out and ducked my head and it flew straight over and missed me by centimeters. Luckily it left me alone and I was shaken but ok and the good was that he didn't do that again :) The guide was saying that he has seen far too often that one of the seals will take a big chunk out of someone for getting too close ,he said he had a few close calls himself.

Having seen Seal Island we set off again and kayaked all around Penguin Island next door, it also gets its name from the inhabitants that live on it. Penguin Island is home to a collection of Little Penguins and other birds that breed and take up shelter on the island. Having been around the island we took the kayaks on the beach and then the guide set off to prepare the lunch. On Penguin island is a small collection of captive penguins in a visitor center where people can view the little penguins being fed. I have been to the island many times before and so I chose to go snorkeling around the island instead :) I got to see quite a few fish and the best bit was seeing all these fish attacking a mollusk, they didn't mind me getting close for photos but didn't like it when i picked the mollusk up. They would only eat from it when it was on the ground and not in my hand :(

After an hour of snorkeling i went back to the beach and enjoyed the lunch provided, lots of bread rolls with meats, cheeses and salads. I then went for another walk around the caves of the island before it was time to pack all the gear up and head back to Rockingham.

I really enjoyed my day out and highly recommend a trip to the island as a day trip from Perth, there are also 1/2 hourly ferries that go back and forth to penguin island from Rockingham if you don't want to kayak (the ferries don't go to Seal island though)