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Published: November 17th 2010
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After our pit stop in Lancelin we Headed ever north towards the town of Geraldton As beautiful a drive as any - Long and seemingly endless road with naught but brush , bush and red rock .Comparable only to that found on mars. It was, as the previous sentence suggests - otherworldly. We travelled for the most part of a day - stopping only to eat, take photos and get petrol.
Once we reached Geralton, Nico and i were very happy to be greeted by our first 'Crazy Clark's' (something we had been told to look out for by our good friends Marie and Ghis Melou (Owners of NOLIMIT Tattoo, in London). Ive always loved pound shops, and to set the scene; 'Crazy Clark's' is what would happen if national chain store The 'pound shop' and the '£1 Store' in hackney had a Giant child. Fantastic resource for cheap food,camping equipment,toiletries and flip-flops.
After we had used the shabby,sad excuse for (free) WIFI in the McDonalds opposite, we got back in the van and made haste in the direction of Shark bay - With Nico's 30'th Birthday fast approaching we were all looking forward to the chance to celebrate it
in the surroundings of the famous 'Monkey Mia' - where wild dolphins come to the shore to be fed 3 times a day!!
Once we arrived we were all very exited to get to the beach to see the feeding. We practically ran over children in our haste and were trembling all over in 40 degree heat (Centigrade - NOT FAHRENHEIT ) as you can imagine (but something makes me think most of you cant) it was the most amazing thing i think we had ever seen! We arrived on the beach just in time to see the families of dolphins lazily swim towards the shore. We spotted them at least 100 feet from the beach and at i nearly wet myself with joy. However i thought that because there was a jetty that maybe that was as close as they would come, happily i was wrong!
they swam right into the beach, so they were less than a meter from our legs. We were all asked to stand in a line (the dolphins preferred this apparently) and it allowed everyone an equal view. A delightful woman walked up and down the line telling us about the history
of this feeding process which had been going on for about 20 years or more and the families of dolphins we were seeing. Occasionally the dolphins would stick their head completely out of the water and just stare at us (which the lady explained; dolphins have very similar levels of sight to us above the water) so when it looked at us it was REALLY looking. There was a mother and her calf, an older female and another small family.
One by one the feeders filed into yet another line parallel to ours to ready the buckets for feeding and picked people out (annoyingly enough, only the very elderly or infantile of the species) I was hoping that Nico or I would be picked so i could offer my turn to the one i love. After all he was the birthday boy and what a birthday wish it would have been. sadly the shadow of bias fell where it fell and the dream of feeding the dolphins evaporated in the unmovable reality of others having the chance.
Once we had seen this amazing sight, we retired to bask in the half light of a restaurant for a wee
bite to eat and a good gulp of liquid. Nothing cures hunger like edible mass. Whilst we dined we watched a rather comical emu stroll by and into the garden of the pub next door. It hung like a 'hoodie' around the entrance , eyeballing all the passers by then sauntered off to meet its compatriots by the shore. Whilst overhead, the most menacing seagulls i have ever had the chance(i fear to say pleasure) to observer. Stealing food from the plates of people mid hack and stab of their still warm food. Aghast ,i was not, but rather cockle warmed to observe such a cheeky sight of guy vs gull.
After a long day of sun-worship, freshly re tanned,and re tired. we head off back to our bright blue wheels(of which there was an exact replica sitting in the car part(in make, colour, and model)to drive off into the westerns sunset to sleep through the fly flushed night.
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