2012, Sept 5/6 - Point Quobba to Denham (Shark Bay)

Luke hand feeding one of the 5 wild dophins at Monkey Mia

Trip Meter Reading Start –  3550

Trip Meter Reading Finish –  4072
Total Km Travelled –  522 km

Filled Up Canarvon
Gas $ 1.01 per litre; 65.52 litres; $66.76
Fuel $1.63 per litre; 23.24 litres; $38.00

Accommodation
Blue Dolphin Caravan Park $42 per night (x2 adults; x1 child)
Nice clean park which is stepped up a hill; most sites have view out over the bay.  Clean and tidy, easy walk to all local amenities.

Comments – Luke
Wednesday - This morning we left Quobba and headed to Canarvon to fill up most of the time in the car I played my PSP.  When we got to Denhem we went to Monkey Mia to see if we could get a spot there in an campground but we couldn’t so we had to go back to Denhem and set up camp after that we had a look down town and went shopping then camp back to camp.

Thursday – This morning we went to Monkey Mia and fed the dolphins.  After that we went to a shop there and bought some shells.  We also went to a big red cliff where we saw heaps of pearl shells then we went to a beach and had a look after that we went to a pub and played some pool then went back to camp.

Comments – Mum and Dad
As we had a big drive today, we were up early and out on the road by 6.30am (record for us) heading south towards Shark Bay.  The wild flowers were coming out along the way and the landscape was becoming greener the further we headed south.
 

This is a view of the stromatolites from the boardwalk
at Hamelin Pool

First stop in and along the world heritage drive was the Stromatolites located at Hamelin Pool where a boardwalk provides easy access to their marine environment.  Stromatolites are creatures which are monuments to life on Earth over 3500 million years ago when no other creatures were present on the planet; they live here in abundance in Hamelin pool, producing oxygen which changed the world...amazing!

Denham is a surprisingly beautiful, clean, small coastal village with a beautiful esplanade streetscape fronting a gorgeous bay which is home to the most secure population of dugongs in the world.  Prior to booking into accommodation we checked out Little Lagoon which is on the left of the Monkey Mia Road.  It is a picturesque shallow lagoon ideal for whiting and flathead fishing.

Thursday – we set off early in the morning to catch the first dolphin feed at 8am out at Monkey Mia (25km north east of Denham); the rangers gave an informative talk about the history of the dolphins visiting this site and about their current dolphin feeding and intergration program.  There are only 5 female dolphins in their current program which they are legally allowed to feed 3 times per day.  Luke was one of 200 people that morning that was selected to feed one of the dolphins (that’s why we call him Lucky Luke)

Top shot Mark!  A wild female dolphin coming into shore for breakfast

The weather this day was cold and windy and after standing in the water for an hour my toes were numb; thank goodness I could defrost them in the car before heading to the cafe for a warm cuppa.  By 11 the bay was calm and the sun was out; we were lucky to get out into the bay and have a couple of curious dolphins come right in close to us while catching some fish.  Even though we have seen a hundred dolphins in our lifetime, to have wild dolphins come so close to you is amazing; I reckon we spend another hour just observing them at arms length.



A curious dolphin eyeballs Mark with his camera



We had our prepacked lunch on the beach at the resort before heading back towards Denham through the Francoise Peron National Park to view the Red Cliffs looking back to Monkey Mia bay....amazing

A friendly local

Back at the ranch, we frocked up and walked down to the local most Westerly pub in Australia, the Shark Bay Hotel for a few rounds of pool, doused with a few too many drinks.  The new publican was happy with our presence and even shouted us a couple of good old aussie tracks on the jukebox.  We felt quite at home, and of course, were nearly (I say nearly) the last ones to leave (even Luke had a great time).  So if your in Denham, support the locals and get down to the pub for a feed and drinks!

Relaxing and watching the dolphins at the Monkey Mia resort