Shark Bay and Monkey Mia Sept / Oct 08

THE PINNACLES

Off we drove in our comfy car (which we only just managed to fit our cases into!) on the way to Geraldton. The scenery was so similar to the UK in places and so amazingly different in others. Lots of weird bushes and trees with occasional splashes of bright flowers. We had a late breakfast at a very eccentric roadhouse that had a till in the floor and a car bumper in front of the bar. Our main visit of the day was The Pinnacles, ancient limestone pillars up to 4 meters high, unique to this area of Oz. Look at the photos and say “wow”……and yes, Duncan, they did live up to expectations!

STROMATOLITES AT HAMELIN POOL

Driving from Geraldton to Denham was an equally long and tiring journey for people so used to little trips in a little country. We stopped off at Hamelin Pool which has the best examples in the world of stromatolites which are ancient bacterial formations that oxygenated the world - “living fossils”. It was soooo hot as we went to the telegraph station café for a sandwich. What was odd was looking at the photos of the floods they had suffered recently. From there, as the road meandered up the coast, we caught our first view of the amazing beaches in Shark Bay. Really beautiful. Our villa in Denham was lovely and worth the £18 each for a 2 bed roomed fully functional house with kitchen and laundry. We particularly enjoyed cooking for ourselves for a change!

MONKEY MIA

The visit to Monkey Mia was fantastic. (What will I do when I run out of descriptive words!?) We arrived early (7.30) and went down to the shore to watch the some dolphins come in to be fed. As we stood on the beach one of the younger dolphins swam straight up to us - within 2 feet. It was so exciting to see them so close. Gordon saw a Sting Ray and a Cone Fish - which he walked away from rather pronto! We also went on one of the catamaran cruises and saw more dolphins and some dugongs which are a bit like the manatees in Florida though closer related to the elephant than the dolphin. When we had followed a walk trail the shallow water we walked in was so clear and quite warm. I went for a swim after lunch but the deeper water was much chillier - but I went in up to my neck and tried a bit of doggy paddle!

SHARKS AT EAGLES BLUFF

SHELL BEACH

Exploring the beaches along Shark Bay was fun. The sand is white or red; so many perfect shells; interesting animals and plants; and great dunes, hills and rock faces. I found a piece of logger head turtle shell at Whalebone. At Eagles Bluff we went along a board walk and looked into the clear sea. From there we saw Lemon Sharks, Cow-tailed Sting Rays, Shovel-nosed Sting Rays and zebra Finches (in the wild!!). Shell Beach shows Sanibel in Florida a bit about being made of shells. They become so compacted that they are used locally as bricks to build houses with. Our Aboriginal tour was “postponed” so we got our money back and went to the Denham Museum instead before chilling out for the night.

KALBARRI NATIONAL PARK

Driving back the weather became quite dismal with variations of overcast, drizzle and pouring. We went to Kalbarri National Park which is like a baby Grand canyon. Very beautiful and if we had known about it we would have got there earlier to do the 8km loop walk. Mind you the 26 km drive there along sand roads nearly gave Gordon a nervous breakdown! After that we left Australia and went to the Principality of Hutt River where Prince Leonard showed us around and stamped our passports. Very, very odd. He was so pissed off with Oz tax rules in 1970 he declared independence.