Monkey Mia
Trip Start
Feb 17, 2010
1
21
25
Trip End
Apr 01, 2010
Denham, Western Australia, Australia
Saturday, March 27, 2010
We stopped at Shell Beach on the way and wandered along the ten meter thick beach made entirely of small white shells before heading into the quite port town of Denhan.
After spending the night in a tent that more resembled a kite we arose at 6.30 a.m. and made our way to Monkey Mia, 26 kms further on. The sun was very low and bright when it was rising, making driving very dangerous as I found out. We came to a T intersection which I didn't see coming and I overshot the road and narrowly avoided a major crash. Thankfully no cars were coming on the road or it would have been very nasty.
With my passenger and I suitably shaken up we made it to Monkey Mia in one piece to watch the dolphins that come into feed every morning. At first here were only three but soon there were upto a dozen gliding around the shore. It was great to see the dolphins so close, but there were a lot of people about and the ranger running the show was really dull. The crowd as well were unable to follow basic instructions, meant to protect the dolphins and maximize everyones enjoyment, such as moving back and it got a little frustrating at times.
After the feeding we strolled along the beach and the grounds running into a cartoonish looking pelican, that was posing for photos and drinking out of a sprinkler. We could have quite happily spent the day lounging on the beach we had got a lot of sun in the last week or so and were feeling the need for a little respite.
We headed back towards camp, stopping off at a historical Homestead, where I jumped into an old-school hot tub made from brown artesian bore water, which was hugely refreshing but stained my shorts to look like I'd had a nasty accident.
Back in town we decided to roam the main street which took all of ten minutes, so I decided to head back and finish the marathon book I had been reading Papillon, an auto-biography of an escaped french penal convict of the 1930's with an epic tale to tell. I celebrated finishing the book with a few glasses of the goon wine.
Leaving Denham we stopped at the Shark Bay Ocean Park. It cost $16 each but was well worth the entrance fee. It was a series of pools housing the local aquatic wildlife. We were take around in an informal educational group by the youngish marine biologist. He really new his stuff and had enthusiasm in abundance. It was quite infectious! We got up close with some turtles, moray ells, Rays, Lion Fish, Sea Snakes before heading out to the big ponds and feeding the huge variety of fish. The Biologist threw us all the facts as well as letting us know which were "good eating". To end the visit we paid a visit to the big boys. We feed five sharks using a tuna head as bait creating quite a frenzy.
On our way out of Shark Bay we stopped at Eagle Bluff to walk along the broad walk overlooking the sea grass feeding grounds below. We encountered a shark gliding below and almost trod on a Thorny Devil, well camouflaged in the dirt. Further down we also stopped at the Hamlein Pool to visit the living marine stromatolites possibly responsible fore life on earth but actually quite boring in person.
