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| monkey mia |
Monday 8th June 2015
Veering off the North West Coastal Highway
once again we hugged the coast around the apprehensively named shark bay (which
sounds more like a location on Pirates of the Caribbean than a weekender’s
holiday spot) for just over an hour before reaching the small town of Denham. I
really think Australia needs to utilise words like village and hamlet a lot
more. As it seems the definition of town out here covers anything that has a
supermarket, drive through bottle shop (for those that have never been to
Australia they never sell booze in a supermarket out here but you can happily
pull up in a car or Ute and purchase a tonne of the stuff. It’s meant to
discourage drink driving I think?), ATM machine and church.
Thankfully it’s not Denham’s uncanny
resemblance to a model village that brings visitor it’s the surrounding regions
geography and natural spectacles. The Shark Bay Discovery Centre and Visitor
Centre is a good starting point for all your inquiries and if you wish to pay
$11 you can enter the educational complex. Although as it was another bright
sunny day we gave it a miss in favour of some exploring. A short 4km outside
Denham on the road to Monkey Mia is the aptly named “Little Lagoon” a scene of
white sand and turquoise water is appealing to the eye but we required
sunglasses to view it on account of the swarming shit flies.
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| Hot Tub Time |
Denham sits on the southern tip of
Francoise Peron National Park which occupies the entire peninsula. The park is
named after a French naturalist who sailed on the Le Geographe in 1801. The
park is renowned for turquoise waters, red dunes and white sand beaches.
Although you do require a decent off road vehicle to make the most out of your
visit. Sadly Dave’s Getz and Dustin’s Ford Falcon were a little wasted. If like
us you are bound to tarmac or shallow gravel then there is a consolation in the
form of the “Peron Homestead”. A former sheep station which now houses an
educational centre which resembles Norman Bates’ root cellar from the Alfred
Hitchcock movie “Psycho”. Specimens of native mammals found in the park have
been kindly stuffed and exhibited for the public’s pleasure. It’s a
taxidermists dream but really freaks out everyone else.
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| The local birds were flocking to see us |
To our groups joy the historic merit of the
homestead is nothing more than an interlude to the main attraction which sits
out back in the form of an artesian hot tub. An ideal chance to kick back with
the lads and enjoy watching the emu’s wander around. Sure the water pongs a bit but then again this bit of kit is more than fifty years old and who cares about
smelling a bit when you have to sit back in a sweat drenched car anyway. Sadly
this hot tub was not a time machine so we set off back to the main road and the
remaining 10km to Monkey Mia.
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| The sunning shark bay at monkey mia |
After hearing such good reviews about this
strange named place (apparently it’s an Aboriginal name and has nothing to do
with primates) in Broome we were all a bit surprised to find out that the place
consists of a resort camp site, jetty and a beach. We checked in at the resort
which cost $18 each per night per car. It’s got great general amenities you
would expect from a camp site and a reasonable café, bar and restaurant. With a
few hours of daylight remaining we set up camp and wandered the beach to see if
the place lives up to the hype. The constant stream of tourists seems to draw
the wildlife and walking the white sand beach and admiring the gentle sweeping
coastline as the sun set we were pleased to see a few turtle and dolphins in
the shallows. We even had our first up close encounter with pelicans after we
strayed too close to a group scrounging for scraps from a fishing boat.
Tuesday 9th June 2015
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| When the wildlife practically throws itself at your feet even an amateur photographer can take great pictures |
We all woke early to grab a good spot by
the pier in time for the 7:50am dolphin feed. They have a few slots each day but
we felt the first feed would offer the best chance to get a unique view of
these extraordinary creatures. I have to admit when I heard that the dolphins
come to shore I had visions of domesticated dolphins like the ones trained at
Seaworld in the U.S.A that rely on humans and can’t be depended on to survive
in the wild but I was wrong. The local marine biologists have used Pavlovian
conditioning like you would train a dog to attract in dolphins mothering calf’s
to help assist the young dolphin’s growth. They only allow a few visitors to
feed the mothers and you are unable to stroke them as it has been found that
they can contract ailments and virus from humans. The young calves are left briefly in the
shallows awaiting the mothers to return and allow them to feed. Basically what
I thought was going to be a tourist gimmick that does more to harm the
creatures is actually a well-managed conservation programme. They have even banned
the ever prominent selfie sticks. Probably because they had to issue a few
dolphins with eye patches after some over enthusiastic tourists poked a few
porpoise pupils out with the bloody things.
On the day we visited there was a pod of
around a dozen dolphins in total and everyone was able to get some great snaps
for the photo album.
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| Its a nice spot but there are a few turtle heads floating by the pier |
Encouraged by how unfazed the local
wildlife was to humans Jono, Dustin and Bastiaan decided to spend the day
snorkelling in the shallows while Dave and I wandered further down the coast to
get away from the crowds and search for another pod. The other guys had the
better luck in the end as all we found were more pelicans which made us feel
like a couple of pelicans whilst the others performed synchronised swimming
routines with flipper.
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| Just when we thought we had seen it all we stumbled across this conga line of caterpillars |
As the day hit mid-afternoon we had no
choice but to leave Monkey Mia behind as we searched for a suitable lay-by to
pitch the tents. In the end we opted for a track close to a lookout spot called
Eagles Bluff. Despite it being inside the national park Dave and Dustin assured
us the spot was ok and if it wasn't the park rangers would move us on.
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