Shark bay

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Having left our royal friends at the Hutt River Province. We travelled up the North West Coastal Highway, where we turned off to visit Shark Bay, A world heritage area, where some of the earliest living organisms are found. Shark Bay is also home to a very diverse marine life, including Dugongs, Dolphins, sharks and turtles. On the land they are trying to reintroduce animals such as the Bilby whose population is now on the increase in the shark bay area.

On our way into the area we stop at the old telegraph station at Hamlin pool. Where we once again in search of the illusive stromatalites. Thankfully we found some more information about what stromatalites are all about. They are tiny organisms that helped life on earth begin and evolve due the oxygen they created. When looking at them they look just like columns of rock in the water. But look closely and you will see the oxygen they are producing. It’s thanks to stromatalites that we are here today. At Hamlin pool rather than sand the shore line is made up of lots and lots of tiny sea shells, which over thousands of years, with the help of the rain have cemented together. In the early pioneer days, these compacted shells were cut out of the ground, to be used as bricks for building in the local area.

We stopped long enough for a cup of tea and a slice of cake before carrying on our journey west in hope of getting to Thunder Bay before night fall. We found the dirt road that would lead us to Tamala station, up to Useless Loop and then into Thunder Bay, by the map 100-140k (the map isn’t clear) on the dirt road. Driving on these roads is hard on driver and on the vehicle too so after doing about 100km on this road we were all feeling a pretty tried and there still wasn’t any sign posts for Thunder Bay (not unusual for Australia not to sign post stuff though) but when we came up against a 4WD track to get there it was getting late and with “Gertie” (Charlie and Natalies 2WD mighty steed) behind us, she wouldn’t have made it any further, so we made the decision to return to Tamala station and camp there for the night. The campsite at Prickly Point was beautiful, set on the shore of a turquoise bay, so the next day we decided to hang around and enjoy the scenery. It was also a good chance to catch up on the laundry that was taking over the back of the car and for us to have a shower. So we did the laundry, Charlie and Natalie showed us how to do it backpacker style by stuffing your clothes into a black bin liner adding some water and some detergent then you leave it in the sun for a bit to warm up, then jump on it repeatedly to swish the clothes around until clean. Magic. Our shower worked on a similar principle, you have a black bag with a pipe, and you fill it with water then leave it in the sun to heat up. When our shower was ready, we tied it the back of the roof rack, opened the barn doors at the back of Jessie, hung a towel across the gap between the doors and proceeded to have a shower, while trying to keep our dignity. This provided great amusement for the both of us. That evening we all chilled out once again in Gertie and I began, with assistance from the others creation of my masterpiece (my aquarium for the back window)

The next day we had to leave our travel buddy “Gertie” at Tamala station and took Charlie and Natalie on a trip up to the most westerly part of mainland Australia, Steep Point, along a long winding bumpy 4WD track. Our efforts were well rewarded with stunning views over Shark bays “Useless Loop” with its vivid turquoise water and looking west over the deep blue Indian Ocean. Breathtaking. I was up for snorkelling around part of the bay but the rest of the guys were not sure claiming it was still too cold. I think the drive may have been a bit bumpy for Natalie as she and Charlie were on our bed and not strapped in, so going over big bumps usually got them air born. At Thunder Bay we also saw a Humpback Whale breeching. It couldn’t have been more than 100 meters from shore. Wow, no matter how often I see that I will always be impressed, so close to shore too very lucky. We had a great day and wish we could have stayed for a few more days. It was great fun and the reason we bought a 4WD was to get us to such places. After a long day of driving we were all knackered but it was all worth it. We pushed on to Nanga Bay where we were hoping to camp the night. We were met by a rather obnoxious lady who seemed quite disgruntled at the fact we wanted to pay her for camping, as we were all of 15 minutes late in arriving. We didn’t want to drive any further that evening, so we managed to convince her to let us to stay, out of the goodness of her heart and I’m sure she thought she was doing us a favour. Bloody woman!

The following day after vacating our campsite at some point mid-morning. We headed north up the highway, where we stopped in to see Shell Beach, which surprise, surprise is completely made up off lots and lots of tiny shells. Apart from this fact the beach wasn’t that exciting so we carried on heading north to Denham, stopping along the way to check out potential campsites. When we arrived in Denham it was blowing a gale. But it did look like a nice little seaside town, if only the weather was better. After having a look around and getting supplies we headed back to “fowlers camp“. Which was one of the free campsites we had checked out earlier in the day and found to be the best. We stayed here for a night enjoying the piece and quiet. We also tried a spot of fishing but the fish didn’t seem to like our bait.

On Thursday two days later we finally decide to move out of our unofficial free campsite and move on to Monkey Mia. On the way we stopped in to visit the Shark Bay Marine Park. All the marine life there had been collected from local waters by marine biologists as part of their studies. Once they have completed their studies the fish are once again released back in to the wild. In the meantime they also welcome the public to come and have a look around. It was great to see all the fish, some of which would look lovely on our dinner plate, if only we could go fishing in the tanks. We were also amazed to see the lemon sharks and the tiger shark. I would have loved to go swimming with the sharks, as they fascinate me and scare me a quite a bit. They also had a few baby Loggerhead Turtles, that had been picked up down in Albany (all the way down south), as they wouldn’t survive the cold water down there they were put on a grey hound bus and now they were being fed up before being released. Both Zoe and I really want to see one in the wild. It was amazing to see how quickly the fish discovered that the guy in the blue shirt meant feeding time, the Pink Snapper went wild, jumping out of the water and splashing around as soon as the guide got close and as soon as he left they went back to being fish. It was really interesting to see the diversity of the marine life in the local area. Now we want to see it all in the ocean it’s self. Late that afternoon we arrived at Monkey Mia where it costs us $6 just to get in, not much really but when they want another $26 for camping on a tiny spec of grass, we thought better of it. After a quick look around we headed back out on the main road, until we found a track that lead us off to Red Cliff bay and as it was nice and secluded so we set up camp here instead, right next to the no camping sign. But we weren’t camping, we were just resting.

The next morning we rose early to make sure we weren’t sprung by the ranger, and went back to Monkey Mia (our ticket was valid for a few days). Where the dolphins have been coming into shore to be fed for about 50 years. It’s now quite an attraction. We weren’t to sure want to expect as there seemed to be quite a lot of people on the beach. But to my surprise it was very well organised. As on lookers were asked to form a line along the shore in the shallows, two guides then walked backwards and forwards in front of us giving us loads of information about the dolphins until the dolphins themselves decided to turn up. As the dolphins are wild it’s up to them to come in for a feed or not, so there is no set times even sometimes not turning up at all, but that has only happened a handful of times. We soon spotted several dolphins out in the distance, then in ones and twos they started to come into the shallows where we were. They obviously knew the guides very well, they happily followed them, as they walked back and forth. It was amazing to see them so close. Pretty much at my feet. Wow. Once the dolphins had settled in to the interaction area five volunteers came down to the water carrying a bucket for each dolphin that was allowed to be fed (They only feed mature females). We were then asked to step out of the water during feeding as this is a sign to the dolphin they are about to be fed. The volunteers then took a dolphin each and spread out along the line. The dolphin in front of us was called Puck. A couple of kids were first to be asked to go up and feed her. Then to my complete surprise I was asked to go up and fed a fish to Puck, I was ecstatic . Then Zoe was asked to go up and feed a fish to Puck too. We both felt really honoured as not every one gets to feed the dolphins. After the feeding, the dolphins pretty much disappeared. Although we did see them, now and again through out the day. During the afternoon we walked further up the shore, before donning our snorkelling gear and taking to the water ourselves, only we were not as natural in the water as the dolphins. This was the first time Zoe had ever used fins and I thought she was doing fine but she still wasn‘t too sure about the whole idea. So holding on to Zoes hand, I dragged her out a bit deeper to where there was a small patch of coral and she soon forgot about any fears she had had as she watched the fishes swim underneath her. It was a great way to finish the day.

Over the next couple of days we spent our time chilling out at Monkey Mia during the day and the nights at our “free campsite” it lovely just relaxing, writing our Travelblog, watching the dolphins and doing the odd bit of fishing. The following Monday we popped back into Denham for some more supplies and to do a spot of fishing at “little lagoon“, once again we still didn’t catch anything big enough for tea, but we are still hopeful. The following day Zoe and I left Natalie and Charlie at Monkey Mia and headed into Francois Peron National Park at the top of the cape for a few days. On our first morning in the park our first stop was at the old homestead to have a look at how an old sheep station was run. It was really interesting looking at the old buildings and shearing shed (1930‘s is old for Australia). Later we carried on heading north to have a look at Big Lagoon, Herald Bluff and the Greogories, before deciding to set up camp at Bottle Bay. We were right on the beach and having brought some more bait that morning we were up for doing some more fishing before tea, but we didn’t get any bites. I was not going to be deterred by a little set back, so after tea I went out again. With in minutes I was reeling in a fish that looked like it might actually make it to the dinner plate. Unfortunately upon identifying it we find it to be a Spangled Emperor. They have to be 41cm this one was only 30cm. We were gutted and had to throw it back. The following day we carried on our journey north to Cape Peron, where two currents meet (the Indian ocean north/south and the shark bay). There were hundreds of seabirds all resting on a sand spit. All full on the fish that were plentiful in this area. The water was just teeming with fish (yes and we can‘t catch any of them!). When we went to Skipjack point lookout, just the other side of the cape, it was amazing to see a shoal of Skipjack (juvenile Travely) swimming around the bottom of the cliff. As we were watching a pod of dolphins came across them too and proceeded to herd them together in order to get a good feed. It was brilliant to see. That evening we set up camp futher south, back at big lagoon, where we chilled out the next day and again went fishing. This time we did manage to catch a fish that we could eat, but as it was only one whiting it wasn’t going to go far, so we kindly donated it to a fellow British couple who we met while fishing and they had already caught one as well so they could make a semi decent meal with the two.

Friday 24th August, it’s Zoes birthday. After a little lie in we woke to find our campsite completely deserted, which is just our luck because we had a flat battery. Opps. We are going to have to get a second battery. While we were waiting for someone pass by, we had a lovely breakfast of tea and toast. Half an hour later we collared a rather reluctant estate agent and his son. Thanks for helping us but my god they were both retarded, the dad with his new 4WD seems to think he knows it all but couldn’t read the “please deflate your tyres to 20psi sign at the start of the track, they were just that sort of people. But at last we were ready to go. Having reached the entrance to the National Park, we set about pumping Jessie’s tyres back up. Only to find that she had started to over heat. On further inspection I discovered that Jessie’s radiator was some what lacking in fluid. Oh, dear. We couldn’t see any leaks so we toped it back up with water and drove into Denham. We still couldn’t spot a leak so put it to the back of our minds. As it was Zoes birthday she was looking forward to doing the laundry and having a shower. A birthday treat to feel nice and clean before meeting up with Natalie and Charlie back at Monkey Mia and going for a nice meal in the restaurant. So that evening we all sat down to a delicious dinner. Zoe and I had decided to splash out and ordered a sea food platter between us. When it came out, it was huge, there would have been enough there for all four of us. By the time we had finished we were feeling pretty fat, but it was all delicious.

The following day spent chilling and catching up our travelblog. Until the evening when we travelled back to Denham, where we wanted to try our hand at squiding. The guy in the fish factory (where we bought our fish and some squid from earlier in the week) had informed us that we could catch our own squid off the jetty at night with the aid of a squid lure. So armed with this information and a couple of lures, we went down to check it out. We were not the only people there, which was fortunate as we weren’t at all sure how you go about catching a squid. Apparently the idea is to cast your lure out a short distance then slowly reel it in till its beneath you, then bob it up and down to make it look like a real prawn. Simple. So there we are bobbing our fake spiky prawns and waiting. We noticed a fellow squider haul one up over the side over the jetty so keenly watched to see what he did. meanwhile a squid came into Zoes sights so she grabed her prawn and bobbed. “Yey! I got one“, she reeled him in, placed him on the jetty while Charlie went off to fill the bucket with water. It wasn’t a very big one, but it was a slippery little sucker, we had great fun trying to get it in the bucket. The guy we had been watching earlier was kind enough to give us the low down on what to do next, so it was pull its head off and the guts come out too then, pull off its wings, then turn it inside on and give it a good clean. Great. Just not too sure about just ripping its head off though… So we settled for cutting the head off and pulling its guts out instead. Much nicer. So when we started to catch a couple more we knew what we doing and were getting quite used to the idea. By the end of the evening we had caught a total of eight between us. Looks like we will be eating calamari for a while. Yummy. That evening we camped at just outside of Denham at eagle bluff and ate some of the freshest calamari it was great. The next morning we were to continue our travels back to the Northwest Costal Highway and north towards Canarvon.

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Photos

Star fish
Getting all arty

useless loop
The road to useless loop and steep point.

Steep point
The most westerly point in australia. Only North, East and South to go.

Steep point cliffs
Zuytdrof cliffs looking out over the Indian ocean

Walking on water
Zoe and Charlie paddling at shell beach

stromatalites
not that exciting really.

Laundry day
Doing the laundry at Prickly point

Turtle
Rescued baby turtle at the marine park just outside of Denham.

Dolphins
Dolphins hearding fish at skip jack point

Dolphin feeding
Yey I got to feed the Dolphin

Zoe Feeds dolphins
Zoe feeds Puck

Puck
Say hello to puck. The dolphin we fed

Sea Food Platter
Zoes birthday dinner. It was as big as it looks.

Red cliff camp
our unofficial campsite at Red cliff just outside Monkey Mia

Another beautiful sunset
We loved our unofficial campsite at Red Cliffs. The pearl farm in the background.

Arty again
Just playing with the sunset and the reflections.

My new boat
A really calm and still day at Denham.

Marina
Denham Marina

Hamlin pool
where the shell bricks were quarried for building the the local buildings

Zoe Flowers
Zoe in a sea of everlastings

Hippie Richie
All the pretty flowers.

Comments

[sufu]

coooooooool
how cool was alll that im glad your learning new stuff each day and telling us so we can learn from you. im glad your having fun i realy wish i was out there .