Shark Bay and Monkey Mia

  

Eagle Bluff

on Shell Beach

The drive from Hamelin Pool was very scenic. Shell Beach is exactly that, a beach of shells. Lovely clear water and shells crunching under your shoes, they got prettier as I walked closer to the sea.

shell beach

From the boardwalk at Eagle Bluff.

Eagle Bluff with it’s board walk high above the cliffs, gave us a spectacular view out to sea. The weather was perfect, clear and sunny. Denham, 20klms from Eagle Bluff, is a small town situated on Shark Bay, our base for our time here.

Shark Bay is one of only a handful of special regions in the world to meet all the criteria needed to be on the World Heritage listing. The Shark Bay region is home to a range of rare and colourful marine life including the humpback and southern right whales, dugong, mantra rays, turtles and dolphins.

Just before sunrise

John at the water's edge.

Monkey Mia is a special place, 28klms from Denham, where you can go and interact with the dolphins. We were up early and were there before 8am for the first feeding. John drove right into a blinding sunrise on the way out, very dangerous when the sun hits you straight in the eyes, luckily after slowing right down, the road veered off in a bend and the sun became higher and we arrived safely.

Dolphin feeding,

 A controlled feeding three times during the morning, gives tourists a close encounter with these mammals. Control has been modified that no one is allowed to touch the dolphins, people are chosen to feed them a minimal amount of fish, so that they don’t get used to human contact and still catch most of their daily allowance in the wild.

John went into the water at the edge, to be closer to the commentary and take photos, while I went on to the jetty to take my photos.

We came back to Denham later and John had a fish off the town jetty, with no luck. A guy in the caravan  park gave us some whiting he had caught, so John is trying his spot tomorrow.

The town shops are built along the waterfront, there is a bakery, butcher, two small supermarkets, a combined post office, chemist and newsagent and various other small businesses, including flights, quad bike tours, charter fishing trips etc.

at Monkey Mia.