Dolphins, sharks, rays and turtles

That's what we saw at Shark Bay. Especially dolphins. Ever since we left Sydney the kids have been looking forward to going to Monkey Mia and have asked when we will get there. Well, we finally arrived. Monkey Mia itself is nothing but a beach and a resort but is famous for its friendly and tame dolphins. Originally, in the 60's, the fishermen started feeding the dolphins. In the 80s anyone could feed fed them and they started to rely on the food and forgot how to hunt for themselves and a huge percentage of calves died. Now it is all very controlled and survival rates are back to normal. The 'interaction experience' is therefore also all very orchestrated. Between 8am and noon there is maximum 3 feeds, depending on the dolphins. We had crowds of about 100 people which seemed a lot, but at Christmas it apparently gets up to 700...yuck. Anyway, we hung around for most of the day, dining in the lovely waterfront restaurant (because we were free camping) and in the afternoon EVERYONE, including the rangers, cleared out except the dolphins, so it seemed we had them to ourselves which was also far better than the orchestrated 'interaction experience'. We took far too many photos of the dolphins, here are just a few.

We had tried to book into the Monkey Mia Campground but it was fully booked, so we were quite happy to spend a few rough nights tucked away in various places and drive into Monkey Mia during the day. We caught wind that rangers came round in the morning and fined you for this, so we all took great delight in performing a few 'Great Escapes' by rising very early and escaping before the ranger was up. In this way we saw continual sunrises and breakfasted in interesting places and got the most out of the days (although even with that there didn't seem to be enough hours in the days). This is Shell Beach at Shark Bay as the sun is rising (note kids still in pj's!). It is made up entirely of small cockle shells.

Eagle Bluff at Shark Bay was another place we enjoyed, this time at sunset. We saw continual sunrises and sunsets for a while there, and we were constantly reminded, every information board we read, of the areas world heritage status!

And in the same area, at Shark Bay, we had a day up in the Francois Peron National Park and headed right up to Cape Peron which, if you look at a map of Australia is right up the tip of the peninsula at Shark Bay. That was a long, rugged, sandy journey to the top but it was beautiful and that's where we spotted the turtle as well as the shark annoying some dolphins and rays in the crystal clear waters and causing some commotion.

Apart from the sandy roads where we really had the feeling we were four-wheel-driving, the other novel thing about this National Park was the 'hot tub' in the historical precinct that we stopped at on our way back. Its was HOT; 40 degrees - natural artesian water. We were glad there was a cold shower close by.