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Published: February 18th 2007
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Mother Dolphin
Amazing moment, so close they let me touch them!!! After 1 night back in Perth it was time to head North and up the West Coast of Australia. I had placed an advert in the hostel to see if anyone wanted to come with me and share the costs. I had 2 replies, one from a belgian guy and one from a German girl, who sadly pulled out before I got back to Perth. I was gutted but Miguel seemed a nice guy after meeting him at last.
Early doors on the first day after a boozy night before, I thought I only had to drive 400km to Geraldton but when I got there I had a rethink and drove in total 850km in one go from Perth directly to Monkey Mia. Monkey Mia for those who dont know is a World Herritage site and national park which encorportes Shark bay. They have over 600 dolphins, and the largest populationof Tiger Sharks (aggresive ones) in teh world. They have everything else from rays to Turtles etc. I was actually shattered when we finally arrived, very glad to get there just as it was getting dark. We booked into the Dolphin Bay resort which was really nice, pool, jaquzzi etc
but will dorm rooms for 8 pounds a night. I dumped my bags and went out to see the beach. I know I might have said this a few times about beaches in this blog but the Monkey Mia beach was just as beautiful as anything I had seen before. White sand, turquoise blue water mazing. I walked alone along the shore and within minutes a huge Stingray was right by my feet, just looking at me as i was looking at it. Very strange animals, but great to watch. I then walked further to the Pier where they feed dolphins in the morning and sitting there were a mother and baby dolphin. I was amazed just how friendly they were, the mother posed for photos, let me swim with them, touch them once and then i got out to take even more photos. It was an amazing moment! Just after they left, a couple of turtles arrived aswell, coming up for air and again posing for photos, was a crazt hour or so.
The next day, I was up early to watch the sun rise and the dolphin feeding. Sadly this time the beach was crowded with people,
Coral Bay
Nice beach, warm water!! made me appreciate how lucky I was to have the private showing the night before. Was still great to see maybe 10 dolphins, 2 cubs in about a foot of water and begging for fish and showing off. later I went on a catamaran boat trip into Shark Bay to see more Dolphins, sharks, Dudongs with babies (which are larger than dolphins, almost whale like and very rare to see), tutles, sea snakes and more. After 5 hours in 45 degree heat it was time to get back to Monkey Mia resort and hit the hot tub. While in the hot tub, over pops 2 Emu's just wandering around without a care in the world. Amazing place, possibly one of my favourites of my travels.
Early doors next morning and the 600km drive still north into the Tropics and a place called Coral Bay. As soonn as I arrived, I doned my mask and snorkel and hit the beach. I wont go on, but again it was picture perfect. Its very shallow aswell and within minutes, I was passed by a reef shark, sand shark and Stingrays. The evening, I was in Bed at 10pm ish and left our
little group by the pool bar. I got a knock at 11pm and the girls dragged me out of bed, stealing my sheets and putting them in the corridor. We all went off to the beach and skinny dipped until the wee hours, forgetting there were sharks, Jellies, Stingrays and god knows what else in the water. Was great fun and the whole sky was lit up with stars, even a few shooting stars which was nice. Into bed and I was meant to be up at 8.30 to swim with Manta Rays (some 5m long) but I couldn't be arsed which is a real shame, meant to be amazing. Instead it was a beach day for me and the crew. It again was 40 degrees plus so was hard to do too much, we snorkelled in the reefs for hours until we saw Bluebottle jellies (nasty ones) and decided to get out. About 250 metres from where we were snorkelling is a Shark Nursery so we decided to walk up there, there were hundreds of Stingrays and maybe 50 Reef Shark babies (still maybe 5 foot long) in the shallow water. A real site to see all those sharks!
We walked back popping all the bluebottle jellies that had washed up on shore, little bastards, ruin my snorkelling why dont ya!!
In the eveing we hit the Mantra Bay in the hostel again, playing Drinking Jenga and generally just getting twatted. A worked there let us into a secret that there was a leaving party which everyone was going to, so we crashed the party and ended up staying there till like 5 in the morning till someone finally said, who are you lot and politely asked us to leave. I never go quietly after a few beers, oops!!
The next day i had to finish my amazing time in Coral Bay and head back down south towards Perth. After 4 hours sleep, I drove the 850km down to Geraldton, running into town with toothpicks in my eyes to keep them from closing! Slept all night after a few beers and back to Perth the following day. Did manage to stop at the pinnacles on the way to Perth the next morning. They are a stange arrangment of rocks which have been there for thousands of years, noone knows where from but they are of course not
naturally formed. They are like of Stone Henge and very strange!!
Total travel was 4,850km, which is more than 3,000 miles in 11 days!! Just to give you an idea of how far that is, London to New York Direct flight is 3,458 miles. One hell of a lot of driving!!
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Dubai Girl
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Need to leave?
Ok so really need to pack my bags and leave the desert sometime soon have only made it across the border to Oman in the last couple of months. Planning Brazil @ the moment and a cheeky little trip to Ibiza in the summer trying to catch up on my lost youth. All looks fabulous, thinking of leaving the Dubai dream and bummin round the world sometime soon. Enjoy, take care of yourself.x