Under the conditions, I would have been happy if they cancelled the walk and continued on the circuit, but that would have delivered the bus back to the main settlement before Adine would be ready for us, so with a little prompting the bus was emptied, and off we went.
From the start it was obvious outside was hardly the place to be unless you'd invested in, and decided to wear, well-insulated clothing with thermal underwear offering certain very definite added advantages. Remaining on the bus would label you a sook, so it was a matter of how long you could stand the cold.
I managed a complete circuit of the boardwalk, though I must admit that the final leg saw me gathering pace as I went, and it wasn't just the effect of the tailwind.
The views from the vantage points were spectacular, or rather they would be under the right circumstances. A passing comment when we were back in the main settlement suggested that the right circumstances were a relatively rare occurrence.
Having made my way back on board I waited while the hardier, better insulated souls went about proving their innate superiority. Predictably Madam, ever eager to catch that extra photo, was the last to re-board the bus. Meanwhile, in a seat beside the open mid-bus door that caught the prevailing gale and blew it directly you can guess where, Hughesy lightly froze.
On the return journey our attention was drawn to the mooring buoys placed at regular intervals around the bays and inlets with the commentary that these were available for lease at around two thousand dollars a year each, which, by Hughesy's calculations would produce a revenue stream of several million per annum for virtually no expenditure or effort. Nice work if you can get it.
We returned to find Adine patiently waiting, and there was a Follow me as we set out in search of lunch that didn't seem to go down too well with some members of the party but as we made our way into Rottnest Lodge, it was fairly obvious that they'd hidden the buffet deep inside the complex, and the guide was definitely advantageous.
Lunch, when we arrived, proved to be a reasonable, quite substantial take on the all you can eat buffet arrangement, starting with sliced turkey, pasta with a Bolognese-style sauce, a curry and rice option and moving from there through the usual suspects.