Shark Bay

I forgot to say in my last post that it started pouring when we arrived in Shark Bay. Not the best welcome we have received. We looked around for a place to stay and found that generally only the most expensive places had availability. Finally we found a "cabin" at a caravan park. They were funny. When we asked if we could see it they said "no" they didn't have time for that. When we decided to stay one nigh to see if we like it, they said "no, two night bookings only". After a big sign they decided to show Wendy the cabin and we decided to stay.

After a leisurely morning waking up at 7:30 am (that was late compared to a wake up of 6am most mornings) we ate breakfast, organized our tours (water and land) and headed down to the Telecenter to use the Internet. I posted a blog post and Wendy Skyped a few people.

After that it was off to Monkey Mia. Right as we got there a few dolphins came right up to the beach. It was pretty great. I don't think either of us got any good photos of that. We ate lunch and then headed out on a three hour catamaran wildlife sighting tour. Wendy and I volunteered to work the "grinder" to put up the sails.

Unfortunately, it was really blowing and it was quite hard to spot wildlife. We did see a few loggerhead turtles and a couple of dolphins. Because it was so windy the boat was really moving. Both Wendy and I got absolutely soaked. Apparently we were in the absolute worst seats. I wish they had told us that before we were soaked.

After we got off the boat we had a bowl of fries and I had a beer and Wendy had a hot chocolate. We visited the boat place and got a pass for a repeat trip on the boat. Then we did a nature walk. Wendy spotted an echidna. No photos unfortunately.  

We returned home for a awesome dinner prepared by me of stir fry carrots, zucchini and chili tofu. I also cooked a butternut squash. 






The next day was another very early morning. We left at 7am and Wendy saw a lively kangaroo hopping across the road. We got to Monkey Mia for the dolphin feeding at 7:30 am. There were lots of people but it was still pretty easy to see the dolphins. We watched two dolphin feedings and I got some great photos and video. There were also some HUGE pelicans. When posing with one I must have gotten a little close because it came at me with its scary big beak. I was lucky I didn't lose an eye. I don't know what it is about these birds. They just don't like me.

After the dolphin feeding we headed into the Francis Peron National Park on a 4WD tour. The great things was that Wendy and I were the only ones on the tour. Our guide was Russell and he was a prankster. The tour started out very slowly with some historical stuff at the Peron homestead but as we got into the national park it became very, very beautiful with white sand beaches against red rock and the blue water of Shark Bay.

The highlight of the trip for me was seeing a dugong and its calf. We had binoculars and were able to get a great view of them from the beach. Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos. There was no way they would come out as anything other than a black smudge using my camera. Wendy tried to get some with her film camera but it will be awhile before we see those. At the same spot we also saw a Goulds monitor lizard.

The other highlight of the day for me was on the way out of the park. Russell pulled over and said he had something to show us. He then grabbed and showed us a snake. Wendy wanted to see it and went out to touch/ hold it and begged me to take a picture. When taking a picture, I noticed it looked a little strange. It was a rubber snake. I don't know how he made it look so real or how Wendy thought is was real as she was holding it. It was soooo funny. You have to look at Wendy's expression.

All Shark Bay pictures are here

Note:  This is a slightly different location than all of the other photos