Monkey see, monkey do, monkeys where are you?

After leaving Carnarvon, our travelling circus was headed for Monkey Mia/Denham. We had Ron & Anne in tow and made two stops on the way in.  The first one was to see the Stromatolites, which are apparently found in only 2 places in the world; the other place being in the Bahamas.   They look like lumps of rock but have a lot more significance given what scientists believe.

How it all started...

Coming or going

Stromatolite 'brains'

They must be living breathing things as this one had just finished a Cherry ripe:

Keep Australia beautiful!

Our second stop was at Shell beach.  Metres thick, the whole beach is made up of cockle shells, which they use for many uses including light weight bricks. 

Cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row

Shell Beach

Arriving at windy Denham we stayed at the Seaside Tourist Caravan Park and decided it was time to lash out on a cabin for a couple of nights.  The kids were very excited and we were very happy with our cabin with the million dollar view.

"So back in the real world, they do this thing called 'work'..... bahahahaha"

Denham Sunset

After our first night at Denham we left early in the morning to travel the 26km’s to get to the 7.45am dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia.  We patiently waited on the path with the rest of the tourists until we got the go ahead to make our way down to the shore.  But that was after listening to the rules: Don’t go in the water; Don’t touch the dolphins; Don’t make eye contact; Only fart downwind etc etc.  The precious little things, it’s as if there’s only 3 left in the world.  Anyway we waited in anticipation for the dolphins to come in. Slowly a group of dolphins made their way into shore, including a female dolphin and her brand new baby dolphin, only born a couple of days ago... and then all the oooh’s and aaah’s started.  We were told that only a lucky few were chosen to hand feed the dolphins, and little Ben was lucky enough to be chosen to enter the forbidden zone.  It was like Charlie unwrapping the golden Wonka bar!  So Kaz took Ben (and Ash) into the water to feed the dolphin.  It was a great experience but was over before you knew it.

Flipper showing off.

Monkey Mia

Gulp and it was gone.

Cape Peron NP - Air down time

From Denham the plan was to go bush camp up in the Cape Peron National Park north of Denham.  The track into the park is very very sandy, so the tyres on the Patrol and the camper had to be let down to 18psi.  We reached Bottle Bay, the northernmost camp ground, but after being greeted by the wind and the flies after getting out the car, we decided not to stay. Instead we unhitched the camper at the camp ground and went for a drive up to the tip at Skipjack point to look around. From the raised lookout it was red cliffs, white sand and blue water... a beautiful contrast. We didn’t see a lot of marine life as the tides had stirred it up a bit, but we did see a few big stingrays swimming around and an abundance of Cormorant birds along the shore.

Skipjack Point

We decided to head back down and stay at Monkey Mia and spend a couple of days there rather than put up with the flies and wind.  Monkey Mia is just one resort/caravan park and a beach... nothing else.  We’d heard not to stay at the resort there as Denham is nearby and cheaper, but we didn’t think it was too bad.  Certainly the kids enjoyed the pool and hot tub, and we enjoyed our drinks at the restaurant and the ‘Monkey Bar’ on the beach.

We enjoyed spending some more time with our lovely friends Anne and Ron, so we all decided to book a sunset and a wildlife cruise, which both turned out to be amazing and definitely will make the ‘highlight reel’. Lots of marine life and beautiful scenery.

Sunset cruise

One of life's precious moments

Ron & Anne - 'The grandparents'

Cooling off

Very very salty water

Dolphin cruising - cool

Aye aye skipper

The only little monkey in Monkey Mia

So Monkey Mia and shark bay as a whole has been impressive.  So far the nature count is; rays, turtles, sea snakes, dugongs, dolphins... but no monkeys!!!


Duped again!!