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Mum and baby
baby's having a bit of fun swimming up-side down! Thursday 26th - whilst visiting the aquarium yesterday, a couple we got chatting to gave us some tickets to enter the Monkey Mia dolphin experience. We were in two minds about going as it’s a very commercialised operation which we saw last time we were here. But the draw of seeing dolphins close up was too great for me and Graham didn’t take too much persuading. The trouble was that the best dolphin feeding displays are always early – before 8:00am. So we set the alarm for a ridiculous hour and made sure we were on the road in good time to cover the 30 kilometres or so. Graham suggested that, as it was really out of season and such an early start, there may not be many people or dolphins there but he couldn’t have been more wrong. On arrival, and we thought we were early, the place was already heaving with people but, as yet, there were no dolphins. Soon the lady in charge explained the feeding procedure and stressed that they had no control over the number of dolphins that might appear - it could be two, it could be twenty or as the couple who had given
us their tickets found out - it could be none. She explained that they only fed five female dolphins that had been part of a feeding programme for years and which were responsible for most of the offspring in the area. The feeding would be strictly controlled as the emphasis was very much on the youngsters and the males fending for themselves naturally. The females to be fed were all named and identifiable from markings on their fins. Soon a “buzz” went around the crowd as the first dolphin appeared, and then a second. For a while it seemed as though two were all we were going to see. Then more began to arrive until there were about twenty drifting about very close to the beach and they included all five females from the feeding programme – apparently quite a rare occurrence.
When the feeding was to begin we were invited to go to the water’s edge but I was behind quite a large queue. So I joined on at the end of the line to the left and, because I didn’t think quick enough, I was facing into the bright sun most of the time. Graham took the
small camera and stood on the jetty (with his back to the sun) and so got some great photos. The ranger in charge chatted for about 20 minutes with numerous dolphins following her up and down the line of people. None of the dolphins were touched at all so they only stayed if they wanted to. Eventually five buckets were brought out with each of the five named dolphin’s quota in. They are only fed a small proportion of their daily requirement so that they are not dependent on being fed. At this first feeding, because all five dolphins were present, quite a few people got a chance to feed one a fish. The lad next to me was chosen - I wasn’t but I didn’t mind as it was a delight just to be there.
Even though I had stood in line like this before, it was still a very special experience to be so close to so many of these beautiful creatures. Quite a few of the dolphins had various scars and injuries on them as a result of shark attacks and one in particular had a very nasty injury. The ranger said that this young dolphin
was probably hanging around its Mum now as a comfort while it got its confidence back.
The first feed came to an end and the dolphins drifted away. I joined Graham on the jetty where he was watching a turtle. We strolled back to the car and discussed how we wanted the day to pan out. By the time we returned to the beach there was another feeding session already underway. The rangers have no control over when the dolphins appear but they had spotted that some of them had returned. This time we both watched the feeding from the jetty and then strolled to the beachside café for our own feed - tea and toast. We had no sooner finished when the third and last feeding session for the day looked about to start. So I rushed back and got a more central spot in the line. This time though, amongst the few dolphins there, only one was part of the feeding programme so only a few people got a chance to feed it.
After that excitement we strolled through the caravan park where we had actually camped last time – it was packed. We came back
along the beach and stopped to chat to a German lady who had braved the sea and she confirmed that the water temperature was cool. Further on a couple were just getting out of a small, self drive glass-bottom boat which we quite liked the look of, so we hired it and spent a delightful half an hour mooching about among the sea grass. We didn’t see too much in the water, just a few small fish, but it was a great way to get out on the sea without needing to paddle, pedal or sail! The time went too quickly and then it was lunchtime - what could be better than a picnic on the front at Monkey Mia watching dolphins lazily swimming by?
The one thing that was missing this time were the pelicans – on our last visit there were dozens of them and they, themselves, were fed to stop them interfering with the dolphin feeding and they had been very entertaining. One of the rangers said that at this time of year it was too cold for them so presumably they had gone further north.
After a relaxed lunch we strolled to the car,
spending some time in the information centre on the way. Then we drove back towards Denham but took the turnoff for the Francois Peron National Park and the former Peron Station homestead. The road into the park as far as the homestead was supposed to be bitumen – well perhaps it was once. Today, though, it was very sandy and rough for much of the 5 kilometers or so. From the homestead onwards it is restricted only to 4WDs and then only with suitably deflated tyres. There is an air-line station at this point to enable drivers to ensure that they travel into the park with the correct pressure and then re-inflate their tyres on the way out. Today though, we just wanted to look around what was once a successful sheep station. There were two reasons for this - the first was that they had a wonderful display of local wildlife in one of the old woolsheds and also an equally brilliant display of old shearing equipment detailing the process of gathering, grading and shearing the sheep and processing and dispatching the wool. The homestead ceased as a sheep station in 1990 when it was sold to the state
government. The second reason for visiting was that they maintained a “natural hot-tub” fed by a natural artesian spring with water temperature in excess of 40 degrees. Use of the tub and the adjacent barbecues is free so we took advantage of the tub and had a good long soak. We expected to find other people there but, apart from a couple who were just leaving, we saw no-one else. We couldn’t resist popping in to Little Lagoon again – it’s a great place for a picnic or in our case a cup of tea! We saw a couple of lovely little white winged fairy wrens. We’d had a brilliant day which, along with the other two days, had fully justified our decision to divert to Denham. However, tomorrow’s journey was to be another arduous one which we hoped would include visits to two more World Heritage sites so we retreated to the caravan and prepared for an early departure.
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