Tuesday 1 October 2013

16 September – 18 September 2013 – Shark Bay: Denham, Francois Peron National Park (Cape Peron) & Monkey Mia



We left Hamelin Pool today and stopped in at Shell Beach on our way towards Denham.  This is a large bay where the beach is made entirely of small cockle shells.  We all had a bit of fun playing in handfuls of these tiny shells throwing them in the air and getting covered in them.  So much easier to shake off than sand!  Instead of staying at Monkey Mia, we headed to Denham where there were at least a few shops, etc.  We pulled into the Denham Seaview Caravan Park and were very impressed at the lovely sites and amenities buildings.  First thing we did was go for a walk down the main street (ok it’s about the only street).  The kids had their devices, penny board and scooter so were happy to get out for a scoot around town.  There really isn’t a whole lot to look at except the bay across the road but we did enter the information centre where there was a museum well worth looking at.  Inside, is in fact, the original flattened pewter plate left by Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog (the first white man to come to Australia) which was nailed to a post on 25 October 1616.  The far northern point on Dirk Hartog Island where this was nailed is now known as Cape Inscription for this reason.  Back at the van, we sat outside for a little while – then the wind again picked up and forced us to go inside, miserable whether… it even rained a little overnight again.

We were wide awake before 7am this morning but due to the cold, didn’t actually all get up until around 8.30am.  After a slow breakfast we decided to go out and explore, this time the Francois Peron National Park.  The entrance is not far from Denham but to get to Cape Peron, the far northern tip of this cape, was a good hour or more drive.  First we checked out the old shearing station at the Peron Heritage Precinct which even had a small artesian hot tub but it didn’t look inviting enough to hop in.  We wandered through more of the grounds and had a look at the old sheep shearing shed, cook and mess house and the shearers sleeping quarters before jumping back in the car.  Josh though it was brilliant when we hit the 4WD tracks as there were facilities to deflate and inflate your tyre pressure all provided.  We set off and Josh was careful not to run over the blue-tongued lizard crossing the path in front of us.  When we reached Cape Peron we pulled out lunch and enjoyed it amongst the red cliffs, white sand and blue ocean – nice lunch spot.  It was then time to walk off some of our lunch by walking a 1.5km sand track across the cliffs to get to the viewing platforms at Skipjack Point.  Along our walk, we could see hundreds of cormorants sitting on the beach in the sun looking out to see for their next meal.  They reminded me of all the penguins in the movie Happy Feet… very cute.  Upon getting to our destination, we read the information boards, enjoyed the view and watched the cormorants and seagulls searching for their next feed of fish.  Then we had to walk back, which was made better by playing our ABC game – the kids had to think instead of whinge about the walk.  We stopped in at a few of the other fishing bays and camping grounds on our return trip out of the park.  It was another big drive day for Josh but he never seems to be deterred and just pushes on…

We went to Monkey Mia after a quick breakfast this morning.  For those unaware like us, Monkey Mia is not really a town but just a resort which sits on a pretty little bay.  Just like most other tourists, we were headed to here to watch and hopefully feed the dolphins.  The drive is about 20 minutes from the town of Denham and upon arriving at the gate we had to pay the $16 to go into the resort to look around and participate with the dolphins.  They had already began the talk when we arrived, but we ventured down to where there were already many people standing ankle deep in the water and a few dolphins were playing around not far from their feet, and others out a bit further in the bay.  The beach area was quite full already so we opted for a spot on the wharf where the kids managed to poke their head between people to catch some of the action.  The guides in the water were giving the crowd information about the dolphins but we were just happy to sit on the wharf and watch from a distance.  There was a turtle floating about right near Sami and I and he was a bit of a crowd pleaser for those of us not down on the beach.  After about 20 minutes, a couple of buckets of were brought out with fish for the dolphins.  They only feed female dolphins and they are the same five each time… however, not all five come in for their feed all of the time.  We waited patiently and three of the five came in for feeding.  However, there was one pelican in particular that refused to leave the bay while the dolphin feed was going on.  He even managed to grab a fish out of a little girls hand while she was trying to put it into the dolphins mouth – cheeky bugger.  The feeding ended and we learnt that there was to be two more feedings before noon so we went up to the café with many other people and ordered coffees and milkshakes and sat in the sun and enjoyed the view for a while.  While we were waiting for the next feeding session, an emu came down to the beach and was having a wander right along the water’s edge – you will see that Zoe took a fantastic photo of the wildlife of this great country all in one picture:  our emu, a dolphin and some pelicans all right near each other in the one photo.  Quite a few dolphins were in the bay so we wandered down to the water for a closer look which was good timing as the next session was about to start.  This time at the end of the information, Sami was hiding behind me because she didn’t want to feed the dolphins, but Zoe was chosen.  The dolphin’s name was Surprise and she was very patient and gentle when she took the fish from Zoe’s hand.  That being done and the feeding being over, we went up to the wildlife information centre and wandered about inside, followed by watching most of a movie on the area in the theatrette.  We left after this and headed back to the car and back to the caravan.  The kids did a little bit of school work this afternoon and we went for a short wake up walk in the afternoon just to around the back of the caravan park where the local school is.  I believe it is a K-12 public school but very small (i.e. – 2 kids in year 12 this year).



























































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