Australian Adventure Week Fifteen!
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2009
1
137
170
Trip End
Oct 03, 2010
Where I stayed
Hamelin Station Stay
Hamelin Pool, Western Australia, Australia
Friday, June 25, 2010
We drove on to the Shark Bay World Heritage Area and reached Monkey Mia. On our first night we met Carolina (from Italy), Nicolas (from France) and Brian and Kim (from Ireland). We sat chatting in the kitchen and later moved to the bar to watch some of the World Cup. Monkey Mia is famous for having many dolphins in the bay. It turned out that Carolina and Nicolas were spending a week volunteering to help feed the dolphins. The process is well monitored by the rangers and only a few of the dolphins are allowed to be fed.
In the morning we headed to the beach for the dolphin feeding. Nat was chosen (by Carolina) to feed Puck the dolphin! It was lovely to see the dolphins up close in the shallows of the sea. There were also large pelicans on the beach which Dave spent some time with!
We chatted to Brian and Kim for a while before they continued north on their journey and then spent the rest of the day with Carolina and Nicolas. We played frisbee on the beach and then played cards in the kitchen. In the evening we all watched the England world cup match in a conference room that had been left open for us.
We decided to stay another day and after Dave caught the end of the dolphin feeding, we all had breakfast together and spent some more time on the beach. We could see dolphins and pelicans in the sea. It looked like they were teasing each other! Dave got in the hot tub with Carolina and they were joined by a French girl called Elodie. Elodie is spending a few months in Monkey Mia and is currently volunteering on the Pearl Farm that is across the water. Back in the kitchen we all played cards and ate dinner together. A group of guys that had been fishing had too much fish to eat so they gave us a huge snapper fish to share which was great! We watched another world cup game in the conference room in the evening.
On our final day in Monkey Mia we both got up for the dolphin feeding and Dave was chosen to feed Surprise! We said goodbye to Elodie and waited around with Carolina and Nicolas for the final feeding. The four of us left Monkey Mia together and drove in convoy through Denham to Shell Beach. The beach is completely made of tiny shells. We drove on to Hamelin and as it was approaching sunset we all decided to spend the night at Hamelin Station Stay. We drove through farm buildings and as the sun was setting we saw the silhouette of a man standing on top of a bus! He climbed down from the bus, greeted us and was very welcoming. The station stay turned out to be one of the best places we have stayed in our time in Australia. There was a cosy farmhouse kitchen area with a log fire where we spent the evening chatting with fellow guests.
The next day the four of us went to see the stromatolites which are 3.5 billion year old micro organisms! They played a huge part in forming the earth’s atmosphere. It was quite impressive! Back on the road we drove to the Overlander Roadhouse where we had lunch before saying our goodbyes as we were heading in different directions. We had a great time with Carolina and Nicolas. They were very funny and we hope to see them again back in Europe.
