Carnarvon to Monkey Mia

On leaving Carnarvon we are starting to see splashes of colors in the wildflowers by the side of the road.  We also notice that we seem to be leaving the rich red dirt of the Pilbara with the landscape now looking more sandy.



The start of the wildflowers

Our destination today Shark Bay with a few places to visit on our list.

Welcome to Shark Bay

Shark Bay - is a World Heritage Area, it has met all four of the criteria required for the highest recognition by World Heritage - forest, mountain, lake and island.  With it's natural beauty and the earth's history as well as ongoing evolution and threatened species.

The start of The Heritage Trail

Our first stop was at Hamelin Pool which is home to the most diverse  and abundant examples of living stromalites in the world. 

Informative plaques placed all around

These creatures are monuments to life on Earth.

Amazing living creatures

The rocky looking lumps in the water are the oldest and simplest forms of life on Earth dating back over 3500 million years; a time when no other creatures were present on the planet.

They looked just like rocks

These living fossils have excited scientists for years and are the oldest, largest display anywhere in the world.

Informative plaques placed all around

We wandered along the boardwalk amazed at these living creatures that just looked like rocks to us.

Boardwalk gave access right out into the ocean

Next stop was Shell Beach - this extraordinary beach is made up entirely of billions of tiny cockle shells layered up to 10 metres deep, and stretching for over 120 kms.

The beach seemed to go on forever

This is the only such beach in the world, these tiny shells are the size of your smallest fingernail.

Tens of billions of these tiny shells

The shells were once quarried and used to build walls of buildings in the local area.

Jeff's toes

On a still day the ocean transforms into a palette of the most intense greens and blues. 

On the day we were here it was very still and the ocean was like a mirror, and it was difficult to distinguish the difference between sky and sea.

Just gorgeous!

Free Camp
It was time to find somewhere to camp for the night, so we pulled into a lovely little spot on a bluff overlooking a small bay with a lagoon caused by a large sandbank.

Our Free Camp site

It was still light so we walked down to the waters edge where we spotted shovel nose rays swimming around and a turtle in the shallow waters.

A lovely beach walk

It was a great spot and we had it all to ourselves. 

The view from our bluff

The sunset here was spectacular.

Fantastic sunset

We woke to a beautiful morning and ate our brekky with turtles and rays for company.

Shovel Nose Ray



Turtle in the shallows

Eagle Bluff
Next stop on the way in to Denham was Eagle Bluff.  This was another bumpy dirt road, but only 4kms this time -  Laurie was not happy, he does not like these dirt roads, but once we arrived he agreed it was worth it.

Fantastic Boardwalk

This scenic viewpoint features a 100 metre walkway along the ridge of a cliff.

Fantastic Boardwalk

The ocean views from this vantage point are breathtaking, and turtles, rays and large fish can be seen in the shallows. 

A view over Eagle Island

No luck for us, we didn't see any of them, we only saw lots of birds out on Eagle Island, just offshore.

What a handsome group

Denham - located on the western coast of the Peron Peninsula, 831kms north of Perth, Denham is the westernmost town in Australia.


Arriving in Denham



Today Denham survives as the gateway for tourists who come to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia.

Welcome to Denham

We didn't have a booking and after trying two caravan parks - both full - we did have luck at the only other one in town. Fortunately we had arrived mid morning so there were still some vacancies, lucky us.

We settled in and took off to explore the town, a sleepy laid back place with a real holiday feel.

A stroll around town

The temperature was around 34 degrees so we had a welcome swim in the pristine waters at Town Beach.

We were swimming with the fish

Of course we had to visit Monkey Mia, so after a good nights off we went.

Monkey Mia - is world renowned as a special place where people can experience and enjoy close encounters with dolphins.

These delightful creatures swam amongst us

These delightful creatures swam amongst us

Certain female dolphins are offered small amounts of fish up to three times during the morning.  The dolphins are only fed under strict supervision of Department of Parks and Wildlife officers with small feed amounts so that the dolphins continue to behave and hunt naturally and teach their young to hunt.

People gathering for the show

Over the years, as we have become more environmentally conscious, the conservationists have put the dolphins needs first, therefore only a handful of people are chosen to give them their daily quota of fish, and yes.... I was one of the lucky ones.  How special is that!!!!

Lucky me!

The dolphin I fed was named Puck and she was 37 years old.  These lovely eyes were looking up at me as I placed the fish in her mouth.

Feeding the gentle 'Puck'

I felt very privileged to have been chosen for this once in a lifetime experience.

After our dolphin encounter we hired two little glass bottom boats and chugged around the bay for an hour hoping the dolphins would join us for some fun, but no luck, I think they had had enough of humans for the day.

Jeff and I

Jude and Laurie

So we went over to the resort to have a late lunch and a wine to celebrate such a wonderful day.

Celebrating!

Today's Trivia
Monkey Mia - Mia is the Aboriginal term for home or shelter, while the Monkey part of the name is allegedly derived from a pearling boat called Monkey that regularly anchored here in the late 19th century.