Up early, and off to see the "dolphin interaction" run by the national park rangers in Monkey Mia.
Dolphins have been fed here for more than 40 years, firstly by local fishermen, then in an unregulated way, now in a highly regulated way, but to be cynical about it, no dolphin feeding would equal no 100,000 visitors to shark bay each year, so I guess there is an imperative business reason to keep feeding them and continue the "research".
Anyway there are 3 feeds a day between 7.30 am - 12 noon only (not at set times), only 5 adult female dolphins are fed (males and calves are not fed), and they are only fed one quarter of their daily needs etc etc.
At 7.30 prompt a load of dolphins - about 10 in all swam into the shore, a park ranger gets into the water and invites us too to paddle then gives us a talk - all about the genealogy of the dolphins, while they swim around in knee deep water. After 20 mins or so (the max time allowable for the "interaction" is 30 mins), 5 buckets appear with volunteers and the dolphins are fed. Each dolphin gets about 5 fish (each dolphin gets a specific weight allowance dependant on their size) and a few volunteers from the 60 or so crowd are picked at random to feed a dolphin. Liz was picked in round one.
We then retired back for breakfast, and Joseph and Jim for a swim in the posh (but very cold) resort pool. Sooner or later the girls wandered down to the beach in time for the second dolphin feeding. again the talk, but to be fair a different national park ranger so different facts (although the girls were probably thinking "get on and feed them". This time Eleanor was picked to feed a dolphin.
Of course this meant that we then HAD to stay for the third feed (about 11am), and fortunately (after a diplomatic intervention from Liz, Katherine was picked to feed a dolphin, so equilibrium was established. By the third feed the crowd was only 30 or so strong - most people get up early, see the feed and then move on to the other sights of Shark Bay (world heritage sight)
Shark bay is fantastic, pristine beaches, fantastic cliff top look out points from where the water is crystal clear and we could see large schools of fish, turtles, dolphins (there are over 1000 dolphins in Shark Bay) and big things - although I could not really identify from the cliff top if they were sharks or dugongs (wish we had invested in better binoculars!)
We ambled back the 180km or so from Monkey Mia to the main coastal highway reflecting that it was well worth the visit. (When we drove up yesterday along the 180km of almost entirely straight road we were wondering if it would be!). On the way we spotted a reasonable size lizard sunning itself at the side of the road. We got out of the car to investigate, and could get as close to it as we wanted as it "played dead" - in fact we thought it was dead until we saw its eye blinking!
We also called in on shell beach. To quote from the info "Shell beach covers a 110 km long stretch of coast along the L'Haridon Bight. It is one of only two beaches in the world made entirely from shells. The beach was named "Shell Beach" because of the great abundance of the shells of the cockle species Fragum erugatum. The seawater in the L`Haridon Bight has a high salinity due to both the geomorphology and local climate of the area. This high salinity has allowed the cockle to proliferate unchecked, since its natural predators have not adapted well to this environment. The shells typically reach a depth of 7 to 10 metres. Over time, the shells have formed a limestone that is known as Coquina"
It is pretty amazing, we build a shell sandcastle, and as deep as you dig the shells keep appearing.
When we were last on shell beach, the bus we were on just drove onto the beach - as I recall we were the only people there, but it was the thing to do to drive on the beach. That was banned 10 years ago, so now its a regulated car park and walking only on the beach. In fact they have raked the beach to get it back to its natural pre vehicle state. Instead of it being just us on the beach, there were a good 25 people or so (and school holidays are over!).
We were reluctant to leave shell beach and shark bay (it was beautiful, and about 26 degrees under cloudless skies), but we had a distance to travel to keep up with the itinerary. So, after over staying, it was back in the van, back along the straight, straight road, pausing only to take a photo of the sign to the "really useless loop. This is to Australia's most Western point, but we ignored this 100km detour - even though we have previously been to Australia's most N, E and S points. Denham which we passed through is Australia's most western village so that will do!.
Once back on the main coastal highway we realised we were really pushing it to get to our planned free road side camping spot before nightfall, so we blew all thoughts of fuel economy, arriving in at our overnight roadside camp just as the sun was setting. OK so the grey nomads had got all the best spots - but actually as soon as the sun goes down it gets cool - so hogging the shade is no longer a premium, Jim just had time to make a camp fire for us to sit around while we ate our tea before darkness descended. To teach the kids survival skills, not only did we have tinned peaches for pudding, but we then used the peach tin to boil a cup of water, and make a coffee.
We were all in bed (exhausted) by 8.30pm.
Stayed at the free Murchinson River roadside stop
Photos to follow......
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