Shark Bay, WA – Part 1: Dolphins, tiny shells and living rocks

After leaving Coral Bay we stayed a couple of nights in Carnarvon which was really just a stop to break up the drive as there wasn’t much to do in this seaside town. We checked out the local op shop and had a walk along the foreshore but otherwise just hung out at the caravan park. The caravan park was pretty funny, with the demographic very skewed towards the grey nomad which did have the bonus of making us feel very young, albeit a bit out of place, but it was still a nice enough park . It reminded us of the holiday resort in Dirty Dancing as there were regular announcements over the loudspeaker telling us of upcoming activities, including craft morning and pizza night – “Good morning campers, today we have …” in a overly cheery voice.

After a day catching up on chores we said goodbye to Carnarvon and headed for Monkey Mia, but as we couldn’t get accommodation at the resort there, we planned to stay at Hamelin on the edge of Shark Bay. The drive to Hamelin was incident free apart from an issue with the electronic brake controller. We had just pulled over for a quick toilet stop at one of the many rest areas along the way, and when we went to head off, the trailer brakes were stuck on (hence we weren’t really going anywhere). The helpful LED code told us there was a short circuit in the brake cable wiring, but given I had yet to get around to my auto-electricians training, that didn’t really help. While I busied myself with pulling apart the car, unplugging and replugging cables and generally getting frustrated, my much more sensible wife called the guy that installed the system. Guess who found the solution?? He suggested that the most likely cause was water in the car trailer plug. Given I had washed the car the day before, that sounded like a likely cause, and combined with 5 months of dust and dirt, I quickly got to work putting all the things I had taken apart back together before I then began taking apart the plug. After removing the cover, the diagnosis was confirmed as it was full of mud. I unscrewed all the wires, gave it a good bath before putting everything back together. The moment of truth came, and the brakes were thankfully back to normal so we continued on our journey.

The Hamelin Outback Station Stay, where we were staying, was a lovely place, owned and run by Bush Heritage Australia, a non-profit organisation that buys land of ecological significance in order to protect and conserve it. We stayed four nights and used it as a base to explore the many amazing sights that Shark Bay had to offer. It also had the best camp kitchen we had encountered so far on the trip. Not only did it have the usual stove, fridge, sink etc but it had a full set of pots, pans, crockery and utensils, as well as an oven which was something we almost never found. It also had a wonderful long table with bench seats that would seat about 30 people, with an open fire that they lit each night. As it was cold in the morning and evening, and windy pretty much all day, it was a wonderful place for us to get out of the elements.

The first morning we set off early towards Monkey Mia. They apparently did a dolphin feeding each morning around 7:45am but we didn’t make it in time for that, getting there closer to 9:00am. The drive up was really nice, passing along the turquoise coastline. When we arrived there were no dolphins in sight, much to Em’s disappointment as she was really keen to see some. Instead, we headed for the giant chess board and I had a game with Oli and then Em, while Kat amused herself on the beach taking photos of the resident pelicans. As more time passed, we started to think that the dolphins, for which Monkey Mia is famous, would not be making a second appearance. Around 11:30am we spotted a couple of fins in the water and Em raced down to the wharf to look at them. She stared out at the water, almost willing them to come into the beach. Eventually they did, coming right up to within metres of the shore. Em was thrilled and kept racing up and down the beach following them. We watched them for about 30 minutes before they swam off and we had some lunch. We then headed off towards Denham. We had driven through there on the way to Monkey Mia and there was an amazing pirate ship park that we promised the kids they could have a play in on the way home. We let them play for about 30 minutes while we huddled in a nearby shelter to escape the bitter wind before hitting the souvenir shops. Oli found a shark tooth necklace which he bought, and he also offered to give his sister some of his money so that she could get a pink dolphin necklace since she had already spent all of hers. Next stop was Shell Beach which, as the name suggests is a beach that is made up entirely of little shells which come from small molluscs that are able to live in the unusually salty waters of the bay. As you first step onto the beach, all you can see is little crushed up shells, stretching for about 200m before you finally reach the water’s edge. As you get close to the water, the shells are no longer broken up but are all still whole, with not a grain of sand in sight. It was really bizarre, and a strange feeling walking on them in bare feet. We played on the beach for a while, exploring this new type of beach, making sandcastles and taking silly photos before heading back home.

With the next day being Father’s Day, we decided we would have a lazy morning at camp. The kids raided our bed first thing and kicked Kat out to give me a snuggle and some presents which was lovely although it would have been even nicer if it was delayed by an hour! We headed down to the camp kitchen for breakfast and just all enjoyed lazing. The kids did some craft while I did some photos and blog, and Kat caught up on her scrapbook. After lunch we took a short drive to the coast to see the stromatolites, one of the earliest lifeforms believed to have existed on the planet (if you want to learn more about how they were formed, see Oli’s blog page by clicking here). We weren’t convinced that it would be a very interesting outing, but were pleasantly surprised. It was a sunny afternoon which provided a beautiful backdrop, with the sand and turquoise water contrasting dramatically with the black rock like maze formation of the stromatolites. After exploring the site via the purpose built boardwalk that took us out over the stromatolites, we then headed a bit further along the beach to an old quarry where early colonists cut bricks out of the compacted shells to use as a building material. It was preserved as it would have been left all those years ago with rows of stepped ledges from where the bricks had been cut. We planned for that night to be our last, but after talking with a fellow traveller that night in the kitchen, we decided to stay another night so we could do one more day trip the next day…