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On Tuesday 24th May we were both up pretty early. We hadn’t decided where we would be headed for and all we knew was that it would be a long day in the saddle. Graham had done a lot of preparation last night and I had progressed things well “indoors” so we were ready to go by 8:30am. We headed out of Kalbarri with three possible options. Carnarvon was favourite but Denham was a strong possibility and depending on progress, one of two Roadhouses also came into the equation. We talked things through as we travelled along and both agreed that it would be a shame to miss out on Denham and Monkey Mia. But they were the biggest part of 200 kilometers off the main road so the “there and back” cost in time and diesel would be considerable. But we have time in hand as our next commitment isn’t until Coral Bay on the 31st May so we decided that we could visit both Denham and Carnarvon.
With that decided, I thought it was about time we experimented with the CB radio. We’ve not used it yet but with the longer distances between stops and plenty of road
trains to worry about, we needed to know how it works. Tentatively I turned it on and it immediately registered on channel 40, the trucker’s channel. Caravanners use channels 18 and 19 but with our main concern being large trucks, we settled for channel 40. We were immediately aware of a three-way conversation and it took a while to fathom it all out. We expected to meet some on-coming lorries but although the occasional lorry appeared it didn’t explain the three-way chat going on. Graham eventually realized what was happening - there were two wide-load vehicles ahead of us and they had an escort vehicle ahead of them, all of which were travelling at a similar speed to us. The escort vehicle would send a message to on-coming trucks along the lines of “we have two 5 meter wide wagons buddy – you may need to pull over”. The other two regular voices were the two wide-load drivers explaining the movement of overtaking vehicles. It was all fascinating and eventually, after about an hour, we had made enough inroads into their distance ahead of us to catch sight of the flashing lights on the rear vehicle. We heard them talking
The usual long straight road
but, what's this - another vehicle?about pulling into Billabong Roadhouse, where we intended to stop for a break, but at the last moment they decided to carry on another 50 kms or so to Overlander Roadhouse so we lost touch with them. It was a bit disappointing as we never got to see what the wide loads were! Unfortunately thereafter, apart from a very infrequent often garbled message from on-coming lorries, there was no more excitement.
After a break and a toasted sandwich at Billabong, we were soon back on the road and Denham was still our preferred choice. We had made excellent progress and turned off the main highway at Overlander (no sign of the wide loads) onto the road to Denham 175 kilometers away. We continued to make good progress and by about 1:30pm we were checking in to the Denham Top Tourist Caravan Park after a total journey of about 385 kilometers. On the way into Denham we spotted several signs pointing to special viewing places including one to the Ocean Park Aquarium, and we made a mental note to drive back out that way to visit them. Denham looked delightful, small and not very commercialized with a beautiful looking water
front which shimmered impressively in the bright sun. The caravan park was very sandy/dusty and with a lot of sites. Some overlooked the sea but, as is often the case with us, we were allocated a spot at the back of the park with no view. It was, however, a very big site so we could spread ourselves out. We were soon settled and had a bit of a wander along the front as far as the Information Centre. While I was picking up leaflets, Graham wandered along to the garage to assess the cost of diesel as we would need another tank full eventually to get us to Carnarvon. $1:67.9 per litre is not the most we’ve paid but is considerably more than the $1:27.9 we were paying when we left Melbourne.
I called in at the small supermarket just across the road from the caravan park and, as well as the few groceries we needed, I was able to buy a pair of beach shoes at a very reasonable price. I’ve been looking for some in all of the major towns we’ve been in lately including Perth and couldn’t find anything suitable (mainly because most of
the ‘chain’ stores further south had their winter range of clothes and shoes in very early, much like the UK stores would). Now I find what I really need in a little place like Denham – crazy. The evening passed quite casually and the afterglow following the sunset was brilliant. Later, when the sky had cleared of cloud, the night sky was particularly impressive with so many bright stars. Graham turned in quite early but I sat up for while playing around with photos on the computer - I can’t believe I’ve taken so many on our travels – probably nearly 3000 so far!!!
The whole of the Shark Bay area is listed as a World Heritage Area and in fact satisfies all four of the natural criteria for this listing so it is indeed a very special place and no doubt we would have regretted not visiting on this trip. As we drove in on Tuesday we passed a ‘fox-proof fence’ and went over a grid on the road. This fencing was erected as part of ‘Project Eden’ which is a conservation programme that has created a protected environment on the Peron Peninsula. Over the last 20 years
thousands of feral sheep, goats, cats, cattle, foxes and rabbits have been removed and the work goes on with the re-introduction of native species such as the Bilby and the Malleefowl.
Wednesday 25th was a beautiful day - the park was quite peaceful and we were in no hurry to get out and about. When we did eventually venture out we agreed that it would be a good day to explore the viewing points we had seen on the way in to Denham. We drove out of town about 12 kilometers to the furthest one we wanted to visit today (there were a couple more much further out but we’ll visit those on our journey back along this highway when we move on to Carnarvon). The first two places were also camping places but you need to be very resilient to stay at either of them as there are no facilities. We were amazed to discover, after reading one of their blogs, that Sarah and Darryl camped in one of them, Whalebone, for FIVE nights!! It is, however, in a truly spectacular location so we could easily see what the attraction was. There were three or four units there
when we called but S & D mainly had it to themselves. The most beautiful location for us was Eagles Bluff, not a camp site but a viewing point giving a really special bird’s eye view of a wonderfully clear stretch of water. On a good day for wildlife it would be possible to see sharks, turtles, rays and plenty more silhouetted in the clear water below. Unfortunately this was not a good day and probably not the best time of year to see much. We saw NOTHING! This location is listed as a special World Heritage Site because there are over 300 species of fish and other marine creatures that usually inhabit the area but at the moment, coming in to winter, most of them have gone to the slightly warmer waters on the other side of the bay. Sarah and Darryl were here in early summer and they were lucky enough to see lots of sharks etc. We sat and had a cup of tea keeping our eyes peeled for any sign of movement but sadly there was none, but it was, nevertheless, a glorious spot.
We drove back towards Denham and stopped at the Ocean Park
Eagle Island is now a protected nesting site
but in the past the local Aboriginal people waded to the island and collected the cormorant eggs and later the layers of guano (bird droppings) that had built up were taken by Europeans for use as fertiliser Aquarium. The girl on the front desk said that a tour was due to start in a few minutes so, having persuaded her to let us in on pensioner’s rates, in we went. The same girl took us round and explained a bit about what they do. She told us that most of the fish were local to Shark Bay. The first tank had several peculiar looking eels, a butterfly fish and a squid. Other tanks contained a variety of unusual fish including a beautiful lion fish and a stonefish. The stonefish is very small and nothing much to look at but has one of the most venomous stings in the marine world. They burrow into sand in rocky areas of low water so it would be easy to tread on one without realizing. There was also a smallish loggerhead turtle that was about four years old which had been rescued after damaging one of it’s flippers. Often there were a few turtles at the aquarium but four had only recently been released back into the wild after being treated and fattened up. Our guide kept apologizing for the lack of fish in the indoor tanks and the inactivity of
some that were there – a number had been released recently and the cold water temperature meant that some fish were very lethargic. There were several bigger tanks outside and in one was a group of snapper, a lovely red emperor (I probably won’t eat any more of those!) and a couple of barramundi which weren’t locals. Another contained plenty of huge fish, some well over a meter long. But the biggest tank was what most people had come to see. It was a huge tank with a walkway over the top. Within seconds, a ‘Lemon Shark” swam under the walkway, closely followed by several more and a slightly smaller “Nervous Shark”. The Lemon Sharks are about 12’ long but are generally harmless to us humans. The tank was full of very large fish and sharks but the highlight of the tour was the shark feeding which some of the other fish also benefitted from – an event that took place every hour. The fish were fed with pellets but the sharks were given raw meat. They were made to work for it as it was “dangled” a foot or so above the water level.
We were then given
time to explore the aquarium at our leisure while two other groups were already being shown around after ours. Even in this “quiet” season they seem to do well for visitors although I feel the $15 entry fee ($17 normally) probably puts a few people off. We enjoyed it though and would have had lunch there also but the menu was a bit limited so we drove into Denham and looked for a café. On the way we visited Denham Lookout, a viewing point a few kilometers out of Denham which gave a lovely view of the town across the bay. After lunch, the next viewing spot was a place called Little Lagoon. It was delightful with beautiful clear water and plenty of facilities for the tourists. There was a 4WD track around the lagoon which gave Graham the chance to test his driving skills. The sand track was fairly well used so, apart from the occasional stretch of soft sand, it was firm and easy to drive over. At the far end, however, a thoughtless driver had parked his vehicle right in the middle of the track and we had to go right onto the “beach” to get around.
The sand was very soft and PIE soon got bogged down. Graham was thrilled as it gave him the excuse to engage the more “serious” of the two 4WD options which got PIE out with no trouble at all. We don’t go looking for 4WD conditions but we feel more confident now that we could cope with any 4WD conditions we encounter. We loved this Little Lagoon location and spent some time in one of the picnic shelters where we had a cuppa and some cake. The one drawback about this wonderful looking place was that there were signs everywhere warning that stonefish inhabited the water there. That meant that a paddle would only be safe if we had boots on with very thick soles – what a shame! On the way back to the caravan we called in at an “unofficial” viewing point where people were fishing off a “spit” of sand which stretched out into Shark Bay. We realized that it would be a great place to watch the sunset so returned at the appropriate time to watch the sun go down. The eager fishermen were still having a go and when the sun had fully disappeared we
left them to it.
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