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Published: September 2nd 2009
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Its amazing how early we are waking up in the mornings. This is partly due to the sun rising so early and the sun coming through the curtains of the van and also because we are going to sleep a lot earlier - there’s not a lot of night life when travelling in a campervan! John drives today and we head up to the Shark Bay World Heritage area. We stop en route at Hamlin Pool which has the worlds largest display of stromatalites, the oldest living organisms on the planet. The water here is twice as salty as usual sea water which enables the stromatalites to grow at a maximum rate of 0.3mm a year. As we walk back down to the telegraph station we pass a quarry with what looks like blocks of limestone. It’s only after a closer inspection that we realise that the blocks are actually made up of compressed shells, taken from the nearby Shell beach. We head over to the beach and find crystal clear blue seawater and a beach made up of tiny white shells, apparently over 10m deep in places. It feels really weird to be walking on the shells and as the
beach stretches out before us as far as the eye can see its absolutely idyllic (minus the flies and it would be perfect!)
Pushing on to Denham we park up nice and early in the Shark bay caravan park. We wander back down into the town and are confronted by emus just strolling around...so weird! Decide to get into the true Oz spirit and do a barbecue tonight...once again have a lovely relaxed evening watching the sunset....bliss!
Early start the next morning as we want to see the dolphin feed over at the Monkey Mia reserve which is 23km away. The dolphins have been swimming ashore and visiting the reserve since the early 1960’s and come right in to be fed. We get there just as the first feed of the day is taking place (the volunteers to help feed the dolphins have already been chosen) We decide to hang around as sometimes the dolphins return during the morning even though the reserve cannot predict when. As luck would have it about 20 mins later the dolphins do return and yes I do get chosen to help feed the dolphins. I get to feed “Puk” who is the grandmother
of the dolphins that have come ashore - all of the dolphins are named and carefully monitored by the marine staff. They are absolutely lovely creatures but as the marine staff are quick to point out they are also not tamed dolphins so they do not pat or touch them, allowing the dolphins just to swim around their legs and to not get used to human contact.
We spend the rest of the morning at the reserve sunbathing on the beach then head back across to Denham before heading out to the Francois Peron National Park. This park covers 52,500 hectares and consists of shrubland and coastal scenery. We head to the Peron homestead precinct which provides an insight into how life used to be when the homestead was a working sheep station before soaking in the homestead hot tub - the original hot artesian water coming from a bore hole beneath the ground that used to supply the stations water. Although it doesn’t look very appealing it was absolute bliss and just what was needed to soak away a few aches and pains. After drying off we head over to the ‘Little Lagoon’ (don’t swim as too many jellyfish)
and then finally to ‘Eagle Bluff’ which has a scenic viewpoint at the end of the 100m walkway along the top of the coast. The views are breathtaking once again and between the mainland and Eagle Island you are supposed to be able to spot sharks, rays and other marine life. Obviously not playing ball today and don’t want to be seen, even with binoculars!
As we start heading inland along the highway the scenery takes a dramatic turn and, where once was lush green bushes and coastal cliffs now we have vast open flat plains either side of us that seem to be never ending. John puts his foot down to try and make it to our free rest stop (Gladstone reservoir) before the sun sets and darkness falls. After almost missing the gate that will take us down to beach we are shocked to discover that once we pass through the gate the road turns into a track with massive ruts running down it. We’ve no time to go anywhere else so have to bump down the track, just praying that we don’t misjudge the line and fall into the deep ruts. Eventually we reach the beach and
park up, watching the end of the sunset (only discover how bad the ruts are the following morning when we can actually see them in daylight!)
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