Week 35: Denham WA - Eurardy WA

 Stats Overview

Kms Travelled: 539

Kms Hiked: 8

No. of Camps: 5

The Adventures

This week was all about exploring the Shark Bay World Heritage Area on the central coast of WA. Shark Bay has some of the largest and richest meadows of seagrass in the world which supports a large population of the endangered dugong. We weren't lucky enough to see any dugongs (not that we tried very hard!), however, we did enjoy several of the other tourist attractions during our visit.

The first big draw card for us was the famous Shell Beach, which, as the name suggests, features billions of tiny shells along the shoreline. The shells stretch along about 60km of coast with reports of the shells being up to 10m deep in some areas! The water in this area is super salty with the only animal thriving being the Coquina Shell, hence, the amount of shells along the beach. Over time the shells compact to form a type of limestone which was quarried and used to build some of the buildings in Denham. We visited some of the buildings and discovered that if you look closely at the brickwork, you can still see some of the shells in them, which we thought was pretty cool!

The other big tourist attraction we did while in the area was the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia. These days the dolphin feeding is highly regulated and controlled, so as a tourist you are only able to watch the dolphins being fed. Apparently, back in the day, any man and his dog could buy a bucket of fish and feed them.  However, they noticed that most of the baby dolphins were dying as the mothers weren't teaching them how to hunt and were abandoning them so they could get a free feed in at the shore. While we were a bit disappointed we couldn't feed the dolphins, we still had a wonderful experience seeing the dolphins up close and learning about their behaviours. One of the dolphins being fed had a calf which she brought in which was pretty cute to watch. Even though they are wild animals, they have been taught behaviours to show that they are ready to be fed and have learnt the signals to know when the feeding is over. One of the dolphins was also a bit of a character as she liked to show off the fish she was given before she ate it! While Monkey Mia was definitely a bit of a tourist trap, we still enjoyed ourselves. However, the best wild dolphin experience is at Tin Can Bay where you actually get the opportunity to feed the dolphins yourself! 

While we were in the area we also decided to go and visit Francois Peron NP. The area was initially used as a sheep station with the homestead and infrastructure still intact so you can see what life was like for people living out there. The best part of the homestead precinct is the artesian bore, which was originally used to water stock but has now been repurposed as a "hot tub" for the tourists! The rest of the park is really just a variety of beaches and lookouts which we enjoyed exploring. It definitely isn't the most exciting NP in Australia, however, it is beautiful and, as it is 4WD access only, it is also nice and quiet because most people can't get there!

We have now almost made it to Kalbarri. We decided to delay our arrival as we have had some pretty horrible weather blow in on Wednesday. We thought it would be smarter to wait the weather out so that we could actually get out and enjoy Kalbarri NP, rather than literally being blown away!

Kodak Moments

Mandatory tourist shot with all the shells! - Shell Beach

Can you get a more Aussie tourist attraction than a "Thong Shack" on the beach? - Denham

So many beautiful lookouts along the coastline, although the strong winds meant we didn't stay for long! - Eagle Bluff

You have to wait for the dolphins to roll on their side to indicate they are ready to interact and be fed. - Monkey Mia

The best selfie we could get with the dolphins - Monkey Mia

The pelicans also like to get in on the free feed...  - Monkey Mia

We have seen hundreds of emus on our trip but have never had to wait on so many to cross the road in town before! - Denham

We have had a good run of stunning sunsets at our campsites recently! - Francois Peron NP

How many national parks have their very own hot tub for you to relax in?! - Peron Homestead

The best part of Francois Peron NP is that you don't have to get in the freezing water to watch the marine life go cruising by! We saw fish and manta rays. - Skipjack Point

There isn't a lot to do in this NP but the scenery is stunning! - Francois Peron NP