Western Australia part 2

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This whole part of the trip is done day by day as I wrote a little of journal of the trip and that was how I did it. Not sure why but I will keep it going for as long as I can be bothered in the blog!

Day 5 Kalbarri to Denham
This was bascially a very big driving day which meant we had to stop at some lovely roadhouse to stock up on sweets and use the loos! Driving around Western Oz is very boring as it is just one straight road. You see a few other people on the road, mainly campervan/people pulling their carivans and roadtrains. Roadtrains are very scary when you drive past them as the wind makes the campervan sway quite a lot. They are HUGE and I don't know how anyone can do that job as it would be so boring. I can understand now why they get paid so much.

The other thing you see a lot of are dead kanagroos and cows at the side of the road, usually surrounded by flies. It is nasty but can be funny when they have their legs stuck up in the air!

Day 6 - Monkey Mia
This was the best day of WA so far! Monkey Mia is famous for having wild dolphins which come into the bay for feeding. In the old days the fishermen used to feed them which is why they come into the bay. They used to give them things they were supposed to eat like hotdogs but this has of course stopped now!

We got up really early to go and watch the first feed. It is never guranteed that the dolphins will come in of course as they are wild but we were lucky as there were already about 3 there when we arrived. When the feeding started there were about 12. All of them are female dolphins. At the feeding one of the volunteers gives a little talk about the dolphins families. People from the crowd are choosen to go and feed the dolphins and of course Ian was one of the lucky ones! You aren't aloud to touch the dolphins as you can pass on diseases which can kill them so you just put the fish in the water and the dolphin takes it. It is so cute and the dolphins are really close to the crowd and go up and down the line tilting their heads so they can see all of us. So cute!

After the feeding we went on a cruise to see more dolphins. Learnt lots about dolphins and how they hangout in same-sex gangs and then when men want a bit of a lady they bascially steal a lady from the lady gang and keep her until one of them get her pregnant. Not very nice really!

Day 7 - Denham - Carnarvan
We went to the dolphin feeding again today as I wanted to be choosen to feed them! The weather wasn't very good today so there wasn't as many dolphins around. But I did get choosen to feed Surprise which was lovely! I had to resist touching her as it was very tempting!

A lot of driving again today to get to Carnarvan.

Day 8 - Carnarvan
Went to the farmers market. Had read that it is really good and the highlight of the place. When we got there it consisted of about 5 stalls selling some veg! Wasn't that much else to do here so decided to get some fresh local prawns and cook a nice lunch (that is exciting isn't it!).

The one thing that Carnarvan did have though was a cinema! We were so excited that there was something to do in the evening as there hasn't been where we have been. This is another reason why we didn't like the campervan. Bascially you end up going to bed when it gets dark as there just isn't anything to!

Coral Bay
We left Carnarvan the next day and headed to Coral Bay. Coral Bay is famous for having coral in the beach so you can go snorkelling straight from the beach. As it was now school holidays the place was heaving! We were lucky to get a campervan spot and had to keep changing spots everyday (which was quite annoying!).

When we were here we did a quad biking tour which was really good. I've always wanted to go quad biking and finally got to do it. Luckily Ian was driving the bike as we went up and down some massive sand dunes which I wouldn't have been able to do if I was driving! Also did a whale watching tour. On this tour we saw a turtle, a manta ray and followed 2 whales for ages. Also did a bit of snorkeling which was good.

All in all Coral Bay was really good and it was so nice actually being able to do activities!

Exmouth
We did a whaleshark tour here. I was really upset when we got to Coral Bay as I wanted to do it there and was told it was out of season so I was sooooooooooooooooooooo excited to find I could do it in Exmouth!

We had a really small group of 6 which was really good as only 10 people can swim with the shark at a time so if there are more than 10 you have to take it in turns.

Before we went to find whalesharks we went for a snorkelling trip so that the crew could make sure we can swim. The water was really deep and the visibility was amazing. We could see the 3 divers under us at the bottom of the oceon. We found a turtle so got to follow that for a bit which was cool and a manta ray. When we were following the manta ray I managed to lose the group. It was quite scary as everytime I took my head out of the water they had moved. Luckily some people on the boat realised I was quite far away and started yelling to one of the tour guys so he waited for me to catch up with everyone!

We went back on the boat to wait for the call from the airplane to tell us where the sharks were (to help find a whaleshark the companies use a spotter plane). We swam with 2 sharks, the first was a female around 7 meters long. We only saw it for about 15 minutes before it went under. The second one was a bit smaller and no-one seemed sure of the sex of it. This stayed around for the full hour you are allowed to swim with it which was good!

The process of swimming with the shark is that you get dropped off at the front of it, have to wait for it to go past and then follow it. You can go as far as the waist but no further when you follow it. You aren't supposed to interfere with it so it should be able to go left or right if it wants. They are harmless and don't eat people so it is very safe to be near it! Of course it swims very fast which meant for me I couldn't keep up. I kept watching it swim past me, try to keep up for a bit, lose it and then yell for the boat to pick me up and drop me off again! This happened about 4/5 times before I decided I had seen it swim past me enough times! Ian followed it for the full hour of course. The whole thing was amazing and even if I did just see it for a few minutes each time it was well worth the experience!

In Exmouth they also have a national park with some amazing bays. The best one was Turquoise Bay, which was beautifal. Exmouth was such an amazing town. Really enjoyed it!

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