Shark Bay

Shark Bay is a world heritage area about half way up the west coast. It is most famous for the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia but has a lot more (and a lot better) to offer than just that. Shark Bay surrounds a 200km long peninsula and islands containing national parks, coral reefs, wildlife sanctuaries and quaint fishing villages.

About 10km after we turned off the highway onto the peninsula we went into Hamelin Pool, an old telegraph station. The station is no longer in use but the buildings still stand and you can buy all sorts of trinkets and devonshire tea at the little shop. However, the main attraction at Hamelin Pool is the largest known colony of Stromatolites in the world. Stromatolites are brown rocklike colonies of micro-organisms that resemble the oldest and simplest form of life found on earth around 3.5 billion years ago. The colony in Hamelin Pool are about 3000 years old. Although they aren't the most dazzling of sights, the stromatolite role in evolutionary history is profound. For 2900 million years, these microbes were the only life on earth. By consuming Carbon Dioxide and releasing oxygen, they were largely responsible for creating earth's atmosphere, and set the stage for other life forms to appear.

Heading further up the peninsula we came across Shell Beach. Here millions of small white shells have accumulated over time to create the beach. In some places the shells are up to 10 metres deep. The shells cement together over time and in the past blocks of these solid masses were used for buildings in the area.

Denham is Australia's most westerly town and is also the only town with decent services in the area. So we stopped in at the caravan park for a night and picked up some supplies before heading bush again. Denham has a cruisy laid back feel of a tropical fishing village, but is still a bit rough around the edges. The town is beautifully located on a turquoise bay. On a still day it is crystal clear, making it easy to spot the dugongs which feed here for a few months every year. In fact, the area is home to approximately 10 percent of the worlds dugong population. Unfortunately for us, it was a bit windy so we didn't spot any.

The Francois Peron National Park dominates the tip of the peninsula. Access is only with a 4WD and the soft sandy roads required us to lower our tyre pressure right down. Even then, we managed to get a bit stuck thanks to the weight of the camper and boat we are trailing around behind us. But the effort of the drive out there was well rewarded. We camped at Greggories camp, a spectacular spot, in a sheltered bay, protected by a reef just off shore. It is said that Shark Bay is where the red centre meets the coral coast. And I couldn't have said it better myself. The magnificent rust red sand dunes and white sandy beaches area striking contrast to the aqua blue ocean. A sight made even more magnificent at sunset. We put the boat in the water and had several fishing sessions out on the reef. We were lucky enough to be camped near two other friendly couples (the only other people at the campsite) so Rob and our new friend James went fishing a few times together and we would all met on the beach after some hard days fishing to enjoy the sunsets. The fishing is getting better the further north we head and we enjoyed squid and black snapper while camped here.

We had planned to brave the crowds at Monkey Mia to attend the feeding of the dolphins but as it happens we made some dolphin friends of our own at the camp site. A pod of about eight dolphins seemed to look forward to our boating trips and came to frolic around the boat on several occasions, showing off with jumps and on one occasion when were obviously weren't paying enough attention, a big flip. Rob even touched one, the dolphins wasn't very happy about that, but they came back to frolic within a few minutes. This didn't do wonders for our fishing as they scared all the fish away but was such an amazing experience we decided we could give the costly and crowded trip to Monkey Mia a miss.

The only downside to Shark Bay is the long boring detour required off the highway to get there. However, we backtracked and continued north along the other side of shark bay towards Carnarvon. Carnarvon is an odd town, it has the makings of a cruisy tropical destination, with some gorgeous old houses with sweeping verandas. However, the whole place is just a bit drab. There is a lot of work going on so perhaps in a few years it will have made something of itself. However, for our purposes it provided supplies, fishing gear and a rego check for the car. We made a stop at Point Quobba for a few nights before heading north. More for old times sake than anything else; Rob spent his 22nd birthday here on his last Australia trip.  There are several fisherman's shacks tucked behind the dunes with camping areas scattered between them. It's not an amazing place but there is a lovely beach, with a sheltered lagoon area perfect for snorkelling. 

Quobba is the furthest west that we will travel on this trip (almost the most western point in WA) and is also the furthest point from home we will go, so in a way, from tomorrow we're heading home. It might just take a while.