Day 58 – uPDATED Carnarvon to Monkey Mia – via Denham

 

Distance 389km 
Avg Fuel consumption for the whole trip so far 15.7l/100km
Fuel used 1567.4 Litres!

Total Distance travelled 10071km!!!!!!

 

We depart Carnarvon a little later than hoped after a call from the Local Ambo’s to say “thanks” for the hand the previous day. Seems “Dave” is actually pretty unwell, and was Airlifted by the RFDS about 2130 last night with a Brain Aneurysm, in an induced coma. Not sure what the future holds, and probably won’t find out, but I’m glad we stopped to help and didn’t just hand it off to the locals (knowing now that they are Volunteers, not paid Paramedics – As volunteers, they do not have the same skill set as Paramedics, but are still well trained and effective First Responders, and more importantly, they have transport to hospital!!!!)

 

To Support the RFDS please click here to find out how

 

We stop off at the Overlander Roadhouse and grab a snack, $2.20 for a fried Dim Sim!! Wow! Head back in the car aiming for Denham for lunch. Find the Bakery and grab pies for lunch. $5 for pies, and not too shabby either. Eating them on the foreshore made them taste better still!!!!

Denham foreshore - Why would you be here????

 

 

What you lookin at!!!!

Again back in the car aiming for Francois Peron NP and the Monkey Mia Dolphin conservation reserve. It is probably worth the mention that the whole area, known as Shark Bay (the whole area is on a bay…..) is World Heritage Listed and protected in all manner of ways from exploitation etc. There is still a thriving tourist industry here too, so things are protected AND people can see it.

 

We stump up our additional $30 to get in, to the WA DEC (Department of Environment and Conservation) and book into the caravan park. Site found and tent set up, we stroll to the beach for sunset, and a general feel for the place.

Some nice pics around sunset. All in all, seems fairly cool

 

Day 59 – Day 1 at Monkey Mia

 

Photos taken during Dolphin Interaction: 1062 :) (Thanks Mum!)

 

 



2 mothers and their Calves. Just 4 of the 15 different dolphins to come in

We have 2 full days here and decide to jump straight in and see the Dolphin Interaction. The Dolphins here are wild, in as much as they can come and go as they please. They only feed certain dolphins, and no more than 3 times a day, and only ever 5 small fish, which accounts for about 20% of their daily 12 kg food requirement. This forces them to maintain their hunting skills. This is important because the young learn this behaviour from their mother, and if the mothers (most of the dolphins that come in are female) don't hunt for fish, then the calves wont learn to find food, and eventually die. This ain’t Seaworld: There is no free lunch here, just a free snack!



Max looking at Niki - trying not to fall in!!!!!






Feeding "Surprise" the dolphin

Only 5 people per Dolphin get to feed (1 fish per person, 5 fish per dolphin), and they never feed more than 5 dolphins at a time. This time around the boys missed out. There are up to 6 more chances (2 today and 3 tomorrow with 1 on the day we leave if required). Not too disappointed. We watch Niki, one of the regulars trying to catch a fair sized fish under the jetty, providing a good 45 mins on entertainment for the gathering crowd.

That WAS pretty cool! Thanks Surprise!!!!

 

They go for “interaction” 2 for the day, and we get front centre spots again. This time the young French guy, here volunteering, picks the boys to feed. Both are rapped, and we get a couple of great photos and some huge smiles from both boys! They thought it was awesome, and fair enough too. Sam remarked that he’d fed dolphins on the East coast and the West coast of Australia, as we fed a captive dolphin at Seaworld a few years ago.

 

Spent the rest of the day lazing around, looking in the shop etc. The boys picked up some more stuffed toys. Max a Shark (not sure what specific type) and Sam a d tiger Shark. We bought a stuffed toy Sting Ray for the baby: Given the Child won’t be called “Steve” or use the word “crikeey” a lot, I feel this is a safe option. It was also Waaaaaaaay cute and gender neutral!

 

You looking at me kid? You Lookin at ME?

 

After lunch decide to play on the beach. It’s down to mid 20’s now, so not even my 2 “Daaaaad, can we swim??” boys want anything to do with swimming here. Max built a sand castle turtle, which was pretty good

Day 2 - Monkey Mia and Denham

 

Weather isn’t as good as the previous, oh say 8 weeks, and we pass on early dolphin interactions, given the boys have already fed one and we had a pretty good time of it yesterday. Wander down, have a look, and no dolphins around. Look through the information centre and the like. We decide to head to the Shark Bay Aquarium after lunch, and so we eat and jump in the car for the 30km drive back to Denham. Weather is still further closing in.  



Nemo: FOUND!!!!!

We handed over our $63 for our family entry. We had heard good things about this place and were   and a variety of sharks including tiger, reef and  some others I can’t remember!

not disappointed. The staff, though young, are knowledgeable and entertaining in informing us of the different types of marine animals they have. All animals are local to Shark Bay. They have sea snakes, Rays, Turtles, Clown Fish (aka Nemo)


 

 

The sharks are in a large tank, strangely enough, along with some other fish that they apparently don’t like to eat! Very very interesting, and the best part is, that once you’ve paid to get in, you can stay all day. So if you wanted to do the tour 7 times you can, just keep tagging on to the end of the next tour.

Ya think!



Max and Bob, the 3 flippered Turtle



What's in there d'ya reckon?

 

Dinner tonight is Pepperoni Risotto, done in the camp oven (but on a burner as no fires allowed in the National Park) which came up really well. I didn’t expect it to work as well as it did.

 

 

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