The next major town along the coast was Carnarvon. Feeling adventurous, we had decided to stay out at Quobba Point, on the coast just north of Carnarvon, in a bush camp in the dunes - rather than in the town itself. (We'd been told by a couple of different people that Carnarvon was pretty average, whereas Red Bluff, 60km north of Quobba Point on a dirt road, was supposed to be a spectacular surf break...............) The camp site was okay - although by choosing a sheltered spot tucked in behind the dunes we sacrificed any kind of view of the ocean, which was only 100m away. Also I have to say that the girls and I are completely over non-flushing toilets and these put us off any bush camp sites. Still - we were out there with the sound of the sea, and a camp fire shared with our neighbours under the stars.......... not too bad! We only had one full day, which we spent driving out to Red Bluff, where there was not enough swell to ride, and further to a secluded beach on Gnaraloo Station where we found some beautiful shells and completely clear water, inhabited by lots of clams, crabs and other critters. We also spent quite a bit of time at "The Blowholes", where apart from watching water spray up 10m through holes in the rocks, we also saw turtles, jumping fish and (very distant) whales. Succour for the soul!
When we left Quobba Point, we called in at Carnarvon on the way down to Shark Bay - despite having a big distance to cover. We happened to turn up at the main tourist attraction, "One Mile Jetty", just as the restored Coffee Pot Train was leaving for its one mile journey to the end of the jetty, so we jumped on - giving us the satisfaction of having at least sampled Carnarvon!
We were making good time to Denham (the main town in the World Heritage listed Shark Bay area) until it took us half an hour to fill up with petrol at the Overlander roadhouse! Finally we arrived about 4pm, giving us just enough time to set up before happy hour!
We had two days in Denham, and to be honest we could probably have made do with one. For a world heritage listed area, we found it a bit of a disappointment. There were few beaches where you could have swum, even if it had been warm enough - and once we'd heard about the stonefish that are common in the area, I don't think we would ever consider swimming! (When you get stung by a stonefish, you don't die from the venom, you die from shock caused by intense pain, and in fact the story goes that people who have the experience fear most that they won't die, once the pain kicks in.) We went to the Shark Bay Heritage Centre on the first morning, which had some really fantastic information and displays - including stories of shipwrecks around the coast. Then we went to Monkey Mia, and hung around for an hour or so, waiting to see if the dolphins would turn up for a feed. They showed up at 11.55am, with five minutes to spare before the kitchen closes (the Dept. people only feed them a maximum of three times a day, only give them 1/2 of their daily fish requirement, and only feed them before 12pm). Actually the dolphin feeding was better than I had expected, since we'd heard a few sneering remarks about it being over-commercialised and a rip-off. There's just one dolphin "family" that comes in for a feed, and they all have names and records of their family trees maintained. They've been coming to the beach since the 1970s. One of them, "Nicki" has had 8 babies but only two (or possibly only one) have survived, because she is too busy coming to the beach for fish and doesn't teach her babies survival skills (apparently). Nearly all the dolphins we saw had some kind of shark-inflicted scar on them.
There wasn't much else to do at Monkey Mia, though, and it was very cold, so we headed out to the Francois Peron national park, where we could only get as far as the homestead because we didn't have a "proper" 4wd. The homestead had an interesting "interpretive walk" around the old shearing sheds, as well as a natural hot artesian pool, which was 40 degrees and quickly warmed us up! Even with a stop at "Little Lagoon" and a fishing spot on the way home, we were still back in time for afternoon tea and a stroll around the town (which took all of half an hour - and we left the girls in the caravan park by themselves with the walky-talky). The next day we visited the Ocean Park, which was a great place with tanks full of various local marine creatures - including turtles, lobsters, lionfish, barramundi, sharks etc. You get a guided tour run by a "qualified marine biologist" and it's pretty interesting (that's where I found out about the stonefish). The big act is the shark feeding, but I preferred the more subtle displays - like the squid that changes colour when it gets stressed and the clownfish that take food and carry it back to their "host" - the anemone. Did you know that clownfish can change sex from male to female and there must always be a dominant female in the group? When Nemo's mum was "taken" at the start of the movie, his dad should really have changed into his mum (boy wouldn't that have caused problems for millions of parents!).
We also went to Eagle Bluff, where you have an amazing vantage over a very shallow bay of amazingly clear water and are supposed to be able to see the "big four" - rays, sharks, turtles and dugongs. Except there were none around that day! We were done by lunchtime, so in the afternoon we thought we'd try fishing, but the wind was so strong it was hard to find a beach where we could cast. We went to one, and found that was where all the sharks were. It was literally crawling with Nervous Sharks, about 1 - 2m long, intermingled with some pretty big stingrays. But as soon as we put a line in, they all disappeared! (Kirralee said the guy at Ocean Park said they don't like squid, so maybe that was it.) We also checked out Shell Beach, which is unique in being formed from thousands and thousands of tiny cockle shells, and looks amazing with the contrast between the white shells and the turquoise water.
Finally, on the way out the next day, we checked out the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Stromatolites are sort of like coral - they are living structures formed in the sea, but these are made by very primitive creatures called cyanobacteria, which supposedly first existed 3,500 million years ago. The stromatolites in Shark Bay are "only" a few thousand years old, but are one of the only remaining examples of living cyanobacteria in a world where other lifeforms have out-competed them in most situations. (The water in Shark Bay is so salty that most other creatures can't survive there and eat the stromatolites.) I thought these innocuous looking things, that could have been slightly unusual rocks, were a highlight of the area - just because they were so subtle and their uniqueness was so understated. Up until the 1950s people were driving buggies over them, carrying wool over the beach to dinghies for ferrying out to small ships anchored off-shore. The track marks are still evident.
And that was Shark Bay! The Shark Bay Heritage Centre and Ocean Park were really good, the dolphin feeding was entertaining and Shell Beach was beautiful, but somehow it didn't quite live up to expectations.
Captions for pictures
- Blowholes at Quobba Point
- Great shot of the water spout taken by Kirralee (don't mind the horizon!)
- Red Bluff surf break
- Feeding the dolphins at Monkey Mia
- "Puck" one of the female dolphins
- Hot tub at Francois Peron homestead
- View of the bay from Eagle Bluff (no marine life to be seen!)
- Stonefish (yes, honestly - they encourage algae to grow on them to improve their camouflage)
- Shell beach
- Being buried in shells
- The stromatolites (uncovered at low tide)
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