Monkey Mia

Kalbarri – Denham:  1 July [411 km]

[Note that this segment included a number of side trips]

We got an early start on a very bright day, as we wanted to drive into two viewing places for the Murchison River.  The first is called Hawk’s Head and provides wonderful views up and down the river gorge.  Even though we couldn’t get to the renowned vantage points, we could get a great sense of the cut that the river has made through the coastal escarpment.

At Ross Graham (named after a local school principal, who was an excellent conservationist and who died at the age of 31), as well as having another perspective on the path of this river, we could see evidence of the sculpting power of the river. 

Our run back to the North West Coastal Highway and then north took us past paddocks of pasture for 100 kilometres or so and then the soil quality deteriorated and the vegetation became low and scrubby all the way through to Denham. 

We had now left the Batavia Coast and entered the southern portion of the Coral Coast:  whoopee!  After we entered the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, we stopped at Hamelin where we saw the stromatolites from the extensive boardwalk.  These are single cell organisms which date from millions of years ago and which grow extremely slowly in very salty sea water.  They have a variety of shapes, including many that look like mushrooms under water.  This was quite a fascinating place to view these very old living objects.

Our next stop was at Shell Beach, where we walked on the enormous beach of very small, white Coquina Shells.  This deposit of shells has built up over many years and is now 120 kilometres long and up to 10 metres deep.  This means that the deposit contains a lot of shells!

At Eagle Bluff, just outside Denham, we were able to look down on crystal clear water where there were large areas of sea grass.  The cliffs here are not as steep as those elsewhere as they are made of more loose material.  This is an area where many types of shark, dugongs, rays and other marine creatures can be seen.  We were lucky enough to see one shark swimming a long way below us.  Yes, it is a shark swimming in the incredibly clear water!

It also is possible to look across to Dirk Hartog Island:  the western most point of Australia.  Question:  Who was Dirk Hartog and why is he significant for Australia?

Once in Denham, we settled in to our cabin – which has a wonderful view across the bay to Dirk Hartog Island.  Dinner was at the Old Pearlers Restaurant.  The building was constructed from blocks of shell cut at Shell Beach many years ago and provides a lovely intimate dining experience.  We enjoyed a beautiful dinner: Kerryn had crayfish mornay and Tim had Red Emperor.  We have a lively conversation with the family sitting at the next table (they own a farm in the Menindee Lake region near Broken Hill).

Interesting point:  As Tim has travelled to Denham, he can now lay claim to having visited the most northern settlement in Australia at Bamaga in Queensland, the most eastern settlement at Byron Bay in New South Wales, the most southern settlement at Southport in Tasmania and the most western settlement at Denham in Western Australia.

Monkey Mia:  2 July
We were up before dawn to get an early start into Monkey Mia.  It was a bit cloudy for a change and when we got to the dolphin centre, there were a lot of people gathering.  We all walked to the water’s edge with the two rangers at about 7.45 – and then we waited and waited and waited.  At about 9.00, a mum, Nicky, and her daughter, Piccolo, arrived:  at that point, one of the rangers started talking about dolphins in Shark Bay and about the region and its marine life in general.  Nicky was keen to have a good look at us before she had her fish!

As he finished after about 20 minutes, a number of other dolphins arrived so that there were eight adult dolphins and one baby dolphin swimming as close to the shore as they could swim.  Various people were selected to feed the five female dolphins which receive fish and, when the buckets were emptied into the sea water, the dolphins knew that feeding time was over – so they all swam off. 

We had morning tea with two other couples whom we had met earlier in our trip and, at about 10.30, Nicky, the mother dolphin and Piccolo returned for more food!  Although we have seen dolphins in many situations in Australia and elsewhere, this was still a fabulous experience.  It was absolutely stunning to have them so close and yet, effectively, to have them still in the wild.  Later that afternoon, we relaxed and got ready to head further north on our journey.

Trip analysis:

After three weeks on the road, we have:

• Travelled within or through four States and one Territory
• Travelled 5,523 km
• Used 389.93 litres of petrol
• Our most expensive petrol (so far) was at Eucla:  $1.82/litre
• Surprisingly, seen only two live kangaroos and one live emu in addition to one dingo
• We have seen a number of wedge tail eagles among many other birds