Denham, Shark Bay 2009

September 25th, To-day we did our own self drive Plantation Tour of Carnarvon. Buying direct from the Plantation Shops is a great way to get top quality produce. Val was able to buy “Green Tomatoes” fresh picked and asked for 2 kilos and was given 4 kilos, for the price of 2. So, I now have heaps of Green Tomato Pickles. There are 176 plantations around Carnarvon which supply 70% of WA’s fresh fruit and vegies. I went to have a closer look at the OTC Dish, which could be seen from our Caravan Park, built in 1983 to track satellites for the NASA program. Now a huge monument to the past, the site also looks over the Plantations.

September 26th, Left Carnarvon for Denham and took a morning tea break at Wooramel Roadhouse, where they make their own pastries on the premises. They were delicious. Booked into the Shark Bay Caravan Park, went to the Visitors Centre and drove around Town. A small Town but the water views over Shark Bay are fantastic.

September 27th, I started the day with a tour of the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre, at the Visitors Centre. Excellent display covering all the events related to the development of this area. Shark Bay was the place where Dirk Hartog was the first recorded white man to set foot on Australian soil, in 1616. After lunch we went for a drive to Little Lagoon where Val paddled in the clear, clean salt water. Then it was on to The Shark Bay Ocean Park for afternoon tea in the Café followed by a guided Tour of their Park. They had tanks with most of the marine animals from the Shark Bay area, from Tiger Sharks to small fish. Well worth a visit.

September 28th, We left Denham this morning and drove out to Monkey Mia, to see the famous Dolphin Feeding. The Dolphin Resort is built on a National Park at Monkey Mia. There is a small charge payable to enter the area but you have access to all the Resort facilities and activities. We arrived around 10am just in time for the 3rd and last feeding of the day. I estimate there were around 100 people there to watch the dolphin feeding. The guide was extremely knowledgeable about the dolphins, knew them by name and told us that she identifies them by the unique shape of their dorsal fin. We were visited by 9 dolphins which came into shore slowly swimming around the area for some time and checking out the crowd. We were given all the dos and donts of how to let the Dolphins come to us to be fed. They are the most amazing animals to see up close. Unfortunately only a few people got to feed a Dolphin and they were selected at random by the helpers. We weren’t that lucky but still enjoyed the experience. We walked around the Resort and checked out the shops where Val bought a few souvenirs.

We headed off to Eagle Bluff. This is a vantage point where a walkway and viewing platform has been built so that visitors can see fish, birds and hopefully sharks and Dugongs swimming in the clear waters of Shark Bay. Although there was some activity in the water we didn’t get a clear view of a shark.

We moved on to Shell Beach Conservation Park. The beach is a brilliant white and is the build up of small shells that die out at sea and then get washed in onto the beach, by wind or incoming tides and over centuries has built up to 9 metres deep. The beach is 110 klms long and at one end there is a shell mining operation that supplies shell grit for chook feed. Val went for a paddle in the shallow edge of the water but had to retreat and put her shoes on to go back in the water, as the shells were hurting her feet.

Next stop was Hamelin Pool where after having some morning tea at the Kiosk, we walked out on the viewing walkway to view the Stromatolites. The oldest Stromatolites are 3.5 billion years old. They are formed by the build-up of communities of cyanobacteria. They are the known as a living rock and are reported to be responsible for providing the oxygen needed to support animal and human life.

We drove on to The Overlander Roadhouse to re-fuel and spend the night.

September 29th, We drove on to Geraldton, stopping at Northhampton for lunch and a walk around Town. This is another Town that has retained its original buildings. We drove through heavy rain most of this trip and it was very windy and cold out of the car. A real temperature shock, as we had not encountered rain or cold, since we left Rockhampton in June. We booked into Sunset Beach Caravan Park (Big4) and went for a drive around Geraldton.