SHARK BAY and MONKEY MIA

27^th May, 2012

Time to move on.  We hitch up the van and drive the 100 kms to Denham where we have to slow down to avoid an emu crossing the road.

Not your normal jaywalker

Obviously the emu was out for its morning constitutional as once it reached the other side of the road it turned and strolled along the foreshore footpath.

Just out for a morning stroll ...

Denham isn’t a big town but it has a wonderful coastal location overlooking the aquamarine waters of the Shark Bay Marine Park.  We fill up with fuel, check into a caravan park, have some lunch and head out to do some more four-wheel driving in Francois Peron National Park.  The park is named after a French zoologist who arrived on the Geographe in Shark Bay in 1801.  Francois Peron’s observations during his visit proved to be of great importance to the natural history of the region.  The national park covers 52,500 hectares and was once a sheep station.  In 1990 the State Government purchased the land to create a park.  A tyre deflation station at the entrance to the four-wheel drive track makes it a little bit quicker to get all the tyres to the right pressure and then it is about an hour’s drive to Skipjack Point through spinifex sandplains, gypsum claypans and red sandy dunes.  Conservation is high on the list in this park and the arid shrubland is home to the rare bilby, mallee fowl and woma python.  At Skipjack point we follow a boardwalk to a viewing area where the rust red banded cliffs plunge into the clear waters of Shark Bay.

Wok takes in the view from Skipjack Point

We spend quite a lot of time staring down into the water hoping to spot some movement.  Finally a ray (type unknown) glided over the rocks below.

Can you see the ray?

As you can see – trying to take a good photo of something so far away with an ordinary digital camera is a little bit difficult – but we do try.

Do you see the white blob ... that's the ray!

While we were at the lookout a dugong swam past way out in the deeper blue part of the bay.  Here is an out of focus photo of the dugong

One out of focus dugong ...

and an out of focus photo of a turtle who also meandered by.

And one out of focus turtle ...

We also saw schools of fish (types unknown) and if you thought the dugong and turtle photos were fuzzy, you should have seen the fishy ones.  Much as we would have liked to have spent more time at the lookout, we had to get going.  The afternoon was moving on way too fast and we needed to get back to the main road before it got dark.  We made a quick stop at Cape Peron where the red rock cliffs ended abruptly at the water’s edge.

Wok thinks Cape Peron would be an ideal fishing spot

The water was enticingly clear and deep beside the rock ledge and Wok was wishing he had time to throw a line in as it looked like an ideal place to go fishing.  By the time we got back to camp the light was fading fast.  Mitzi handled the four-wheel driving admirably and so had Wok.

In the morning we headed out early and drove the 28 kms to Monkey Mia – paid our $6 per person (pensioner’s discount) at the entry station to the reserve and wandered down to the water.  There was a small flock of emus grazing on the grass in the resort area.

This nice green grass is a lot tastier than bush tucker

With nothing but arid scrubby bush to eat outside the resort the nice green grass must surely look and taste much better.  Monkey Mia has been made famous by the wild dolphins that come daily to shore to be fed.  We had been told by quite a few people not to expect much as the number of dolphins had dwindled to only a few over the years.  This may have been true in the past but now with the management and feeding of the dolphins strictly controlled by the Department of Environment and Conservation the number of dolphins is steadily growing.  The dolphins used to hang around in the shallow waters of the bay as people would feed them at anytime of the day.  The dolphins were breeding but their calves were dying before they reached one year old.   Research showed that to nurse their babies successfully dolphins needed to be in deep water so the dolphins are now only fed a limited number of fish at three early morning feedings and they then head back out into the deeper water to hunt for the rest of their dinner.  The plan seems to be working as the survival rate for the baby dolphins is on the rise.  As we walked down to the beach we could see a couple of dolphins cruising in the shallows.

Wok wades into the water at Monkey Mia

We watched as they silently patrolled up and down the beach until the ranger entered the water.  Within a few seconds they gathered near

Yep!  That's the ranger lady!  If we wait right here we will get some fish ...

and ever so patiently kept a watchful eye on her.

Do you think she's seen us yet?

The ranger was very informative and gave us an excellent insight into the lives of the Monkey Mia dolphins – all the while the dolphins waited patiently.

She's seen me!   She's seen me!

There were about thirty people knee-deep in the water and the dolphins swam very close to us   By now there were six dolphins and one mother had a young one by her side.

Mother and baby dolphin cruise past

We were warned not to try and touch the dolphins as not only is it not good for the dolphins it could be especially painful for us.  As the dolphins are wild their natural reaction is to turn and bite whatever has touched them and with a mouthful of nasty looking teeth a dolphin bite would probably not be very pleasant.  At feed-time we were asked to leave the water and a few people were chosen from the crowd to give the fish to the dolphins.  The dolphins were very gentle in taking the fish and once the empty fish buckets were rinsed out and held high in the air the dolphins quickly left the shallows and headed for the deeper water.  Breakfast was over but at the same time tomorrow the free food would be on again for any dolphin that so desired.

The feeding of the Monkey Mia dolphins has changed over the years and some people probably prefer how it was done in the past.  We thought it was still wonderful and enjoyed the interaction of the wild dolphins with humans.  The changes can only be better for the dolphins and that has to be a good thing.

With the dolphins happily zooming about in the deep we boarded Aristocat 2 for a short cruise out to the Blue Lagoon Pearl Farm.

Blue Lagoon Pearl Farm

Pearling in Shark Bay commenced in the 1850’s when an American whaler first noticed oysters in the area.  As demand for pearls declined after the global financial crisis a number of pearl farms ceased operation and now there is only one working Pearl Farm in Shark Bay.  We boarded the pearl farm and were given a very entertaining and educational demonstration of cultivating, seeding and harvesting the pearl oyster.

Mmmmm - yummy pearl meat!  Try some ...

Wok was offered a piece of pearl meat to try and although he ate it he wasn’t overly impressed.  We watched as the farmhands cleaned the oysters ready for seeding and then checked out the finished product.  There were some beautiful pearls on display and Robyn had her eye on a particularly nice pendant – that is until Wok noticed the number of zeros after the dollar sign and decided it was time to hop on the boat headed back to shore.

The Aristocat 2 moored at the pearl farm

We waved goodbye to the Aristocat 2 as she headed off on a three hour cruise.  We on the other hand had only signed on for the Pearl Farm tour and were now hitching a ride back to shore on the pearl farm ferry barge – a wee bit noisy but gets the job done.  We hitch up again in the morning and head back out towards the highway.  It’s a 156 km drive into Monkey Mia from the highway and with no other access the same route back out.  We break the trip up by stopping at Eagle Bluff for a bird’s eye look into the shallow waters below.

View from Eagle Bluff

This time we don’t see anything in the water but we do see plenty of birds (mainly cormorants) on the island just off shore.

Plenty of birds on the off shore islands

Another stop along the way is at Shell Beach.

Wok at Shell Beach

There’s no sand on this beach – just billions of tiny cockle shells layered up to eight metres deep.

Just a very small sample of the billions of shells at Shell Beach

It’s hard to imagine that each and every one of these shells once had something living in them.  Just can’t seem to get our heads around that!

We finally rejoin the highway and head north once more.  Forty kms south of Carnarvon we turn down a dirt road and travel eight kms until we reach a free camping area at Bush Bay where we find a spot and settle in for the night.

Our campsite at Bush Bay

Bush Bay is on the eastern edge of Shark Bay Marine Park and the water looks so inviting that Wok decides to try out his fishing expertise.  

Wok waits for the big one ......

He doesn’t seem to be having much luck but with the water lapping at his feet, the sun slowly dipping on the horizon and a beer in his stubby holder … it can’t get much better than that!