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Published: October 11th 2009
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Hi everyone
After Carnarvon, we drove down another uninteresting road,stopping at a lookout for lunch on the way. We kept going to the Overlander Roadhouse, where we had a quick look around, then turned off towards Shark Bay. We stayed 2 nights at Hamelin Station, where Chris volunteered to help the owner for a day. He built tempory yards, drafted sheep and goats (and some emu), and tagged some animals without tags. He was picked up at 6am, and got back to the van at 6.15pm exhausted but happy. I will include his comments of his day at the end of this blog, as some of you may be interested. After turning down more work at the station, we drove to nearby Hamelin Pool, and saw the stromatolites . Stromatolites were the first organisms on earth, as a byproduct of their activity they produced oxygen, and over thousands of millions of years increased the oxygen level in the world's atmosphere to a level (20%) where other organisms could develop and survive. This is the largest of only 2 known sites on earth where they survive. They survive here because Hamelin Pool water is twice as saline as normal seawater.
We then
lovely seafood from the area
Shell brick construction of this building too. stopped at Shell Beach. Tiny cockle shells make up this white undulating beach. Then on to Denham, where we got a great campsite at the end on the waterfront. We had booked for 3 nights, but have extended it to 4 nights.
On Friday we went to Monkey Mia early, we just missed the 1st feeding of the dolphins - apparently there were hundreds of tourists there - but saw the 2nd feeding, when I was chosen to feed one of the regular dolphins, Nicky. We then had a coffee, and went down to watch the 3rd feeding, when Chris was chosen to also feed Nicky. About 3 - 4 dolphins come to feed regularly, but others come in close too. They only feed females now, as the males can be aggressive, and they want the babies to learn to catch their own fish. The fed dolphins only receive a small percentage of their daily food requirements.
On Saturday, we spent the day out on "Aqua Rush", an 8.5m rib, and cruised past Dirk Hartog Island, seeing lots of birds, including osprey, sea eagles, and lots of cormorants (that look like shags). We went out the South Passage to Steep
Point - the westernmost point of Australia. We have now completed all four cardinal points in Australia.
We looked for whales in the 2 - 3 meter swells, but couldn't see any. We surfed back into South Passage, and had a lovely snorkel just inside the reef in very clear water. Lots of different coloured coral of various shapes, and some different fish than we've seen before. After lunch on a white sand beach, we cruised back accross Shark Bay, seeing dolphins, turtles, and lots of dugongs. It was a lovely day in calm conditions. We then went out for dinner (for my birthday) to The Old Pearler Restaurant -Australia's most western eatery -which is made from shell bricks.
Today after doing washing, and catching up with chores, and swapping our read books at a very good caravan park library, we visited the infomation centre and World Heritage Discovery Centre. Back to the van for lunch, then south for a visit to Ocean Park Natural Marine Exhibition. We saw sharks, turtles, rays and lots of fish in tanks. The rays and cat fish almost climbed out of the tank begging to be fed.
The wind increased this afternoon. We visited
Eagle Bluff, where we could barely stand up! Bach at the van, it was too windy to sit outside. (Thankgoodness we did the boat trip yesterday!)
Here is an account of Chris' day on an outback station:
'I went to the 1st set of yards 6am with the station owner and station hand (20yr old). Station is approx 500,000 acres. They try to have a bore and water troughs approx 8 miles apart ie a radius of 4 miles forraging for the sheep and goats from each waterhole. At each water bore there is a set of basic yards built of steel. Generally animals, sheep, goats and emus can enter the yards where the water troughs are by a set of one way spring loaded gates and depart by another set of spring loaded one way gates. When they wish to muster, they close the exit set of gates, which means that every animal coming in to drink remains in the yards. They can leave this arrangement for 2 - 3 days, which traps most animals in the area. The first thing we did was get rid of the emus, who are dumb and when stressed will run into fences
more animals
they are really different! full tilt! One bird died of a broken neck and several more were injured trying to get them out.
At 2 separate locations , about 40km apart, we built tempory yards from modular (approx 3m) sections of interlocking fencing made of steel. We then yarded and put through a race sheep, goats, draughting off the rams and billy goats, and ear tagging the ewes, does and young ones. Lambs and kids from 1 week old included! Very dusty work, no cloud, approx 30 degrees, with hard ground. At least 1 sheep and 2 lambs died in the process. This is a hard land!! No grass, sheep and goats live on the stunted trees /bushes. Rams and billy goats will be sold tomorrow for live export to Indonesia and Maylasia, the timing of this sale is to meet a ship due in port shortly.
Because of the type of mustering the owner has 1 dog and 1 pup, very different from NZ, but a very good dog, similiar to a NZ sheep dog, who even worked for me."
Cheers Lynne and Chris
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Rick Larcombe
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Denham
We loved this one ....been there ...Phillip wrote his name at Shell Beach by scraping his foot around the shells at low tide - they come up white, and apparently last for a week or two. Did you meet the Corromandel people who run the takeaway food shop in Denham? Chris is learning fast about becoming an outback farmer ---a new carreer? See you soon Rick and Sue