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Published: December 28th 2007
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After spending nearly a week in Perth we decided to hire a car and drive up the coast and see a bit of Oz away from the city. We left Perth early in the morning and we spent nearly all day driving, only stopping to swap over the driving and filling up with petrol. It was so different to driving at home....in a stretch of road about 50km long, which was completely straight, we saw virtually no cars in either direction! Ten hours later we arrived at our accommodation for the next 3 nights. For as long as we can remember there has been a sign at home when you exit Uxbridge (North West London for those who don't know) and enter Denham saying "Denham, twinned with Denham, Shark Bay, Western Australia", so the long standing question was "Is there a sign the other end?"... and the answer to this is in fact there is!!!! There is a big sign saying "Denham...twinned with Denham, Buckingham Shire, ENGLAND". Denham in Oz being slightly different to Denham UK, as it is a small sea side town with a promenade to walk along with a local store, a few hotels/motels, bakery and butcher and,
typically, a pub.
The main reason for our loooooonnngggg journey was not just to check out Denham, but to visit Monkey Mia and the wild dolphins that come into the bay daily. We were unsure of what to expect, and as they were wild there was a chance they wouldn't show at all... but we were in luck, about 10 dolphins would come into the shore both days we were there, including a 1 month old dolphin named Flute. On the first day she would stick by her mother, Piccalo, but the 2nd day she was darting all over the place and really having fun, making squeaking noises and checking us all out. As Flute was under 6 weeks old we were not allowed in the water in case it scared her away so we could only watch from the edge of the sea when Flute was around, but this was close enough to see the dolphins as they would come really close to us....peering out of the water having a good look. One of the older dolphins seemed to like showing off by sitting with her back fin up and nose in the air, which was very surreal....a
wild dolphin doing tricks like it was in a show!!! She stayed in this position while everyone gathered round taking photos and she kept turning to face everyone. They seemed to have so much fun...apparently they spend 8 hours a day hunting for food, 8 hours sleeping and 8 hours socialising....apart from trying to dodge predators, like the odd shark, what a life!!!!! The rangers at Monkey Mia only feed a couple of dolphins each day and only a few fish at a time, so most of the dolphins do not get fed and must just come to see the humans that gather at the edge of their world each day!
Not only is Monkey Mia great to see the dolphins but it has a gorgeous beach so we spent the rest of the day (the dolphins only show in the morning) lazing on the beach and swimming in the sea....however still a bit unsure of the water here in Oz, as there were signs advising to watch out for deadly octopus on the information board, and obviously with a name like Shark Bay we didn't fancy a swim with a shark!!
On the way back down to
Perth we decided to stop in a few places to make it a bit more leisurely, and we found that no matter which beach we chose they were all stunning with blue, blue sea and white sand...and generally with no one else on the beach. We stayed in a place called Cervantes, which was not too far from The Pinnacles Desert, which has thousands of strange limestone formations sticking up out of the desert. We had a walk around the Pinnacles at dusk, which was one of the best times to see them due to the light. It was also a good time for spotting wildlife... with the odd kangaroo bouncing in the distance and a emu having a snack on some of the plants. As we were driving back just after sunset, and had been warned about kangaroos jumping out on the road, we drove slowly along and saw plenty more kangaroos bouncing around.
The best one however, was when we were leaving our hostel in the morning... we were just loading up the car and I saw what could have been the rear end of a Kangaroo...(it could also have been a bush as I did not
have my glasses on at the time!!) but it then moved and looked at me and I decided it was definitely a Kangaroo! It stood and watched us and then decided to hop away a bit and hide behind a bush.....we were not fooled and carried on waiting. After a couple of minutes it popped it head up obviously hoping we had walked away...saw us, looked a bit more before deciding if we weren't moving then it was...so off it hopped!
So after a great time in Western Australia, we are heading east... first stop Adelaide.
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