Carnarvon - Shark Bay World Heritage Area

Salt pans from a lookout along the highway

We left Carnarvon on Tuesday, driving back out into the red plains occasionally spotting dazzling white salt and terracotta coloured clay pans.  We crossed the 126th parallel just before lunch, leaving the North West behind us. We were vigilant in looking for the Shark Bay turnoff, after the attendant at Wooramel Roadhouse told us that many people miss it and end up there.

A snapshot from 3.5 billion years ago (minus the birds!)

The Hamelin Pool stromatolites were our first port of call. Hamelin Pool is home to the most diverse and abundant examples of living stromatolites in the world. These creatures are a timecapsule of what life on Earth was like over 3500 million years ago; a time when no other complex creatures were present on the planet. Stromatolites dominated the earth for 2 billion years, producing enough oxygen through photosynthesis to allow the development of us, amongst other things! Although they weren't exactly gorgeous, it was awe-inspiring to contemplate them and the job they did!

Coquina was cut using cross-cut saws -
will cross children work?

The hyper-saline bay is also home to a tiny cockle which obviously thrives there, given the piles of shells which form dunes along the beach. Over time the shells were compacted to form Coquina, which was cut into blocks and used as a building material. The quarry is a heritage listed site now, but blocks are occasionally cut to repair historical buildings here.

As we drove up towards Denham, we zig-zagged back over the 126th parallel again, which was no-where near as exciting as the scenery. Bright green shrubs, red sand dunes, dazzling white shell beaches, green and azure water ... incredibly beautiful. We were a bit worried about getting a site as WA families are still on school holidays, but we found a home at Denham in Australia's most Westerly Caravan Park. The kids disappeared into the shell dunes behind the park as soon as we were set up and only reappeared to walk down along the waterfront to get fish and chips!

For Tender - huon pine boat with chequered history including
a number of sinkings!

Sunset on the waterfront in Denham

Another "You wouldn't want to
drop your favourite teddy down
there!" moment

Our first port of call the next day was the excellent Shark Bay Information Centre. We spent a very interesting couple of hours there and the kids were so reluctant to leave the attendant said we could come back over the next few days. Eagle Bluff was a short drive out of town and, as the name suggests, was perched high up over the bay. Feeling slightly voyeuristic, we spied on the sharks, stingrays, schools of fish and birds far below!  Ocean Park was another incredibly interesting place, where we spent 2 hours with a marine biologist guide sharing his knowledge and passion for all things marine with us. He had some timely comments to make on fishing for food vs. sport, legal limits and breeding stock, which Lachie listened to intently.

"Road Signs" on the way to Ocean Park

Ella fell in love with a turtle she promptly named Ted, so we have another soft toy adding to the menagerie in the Blunderbuss.

Tired Ted!

We were up early this morning to drive the 25kms to Monkey Mia for our dolphin experience. It was cool and cloudy, which coupled with the low tide meant that the dolphins were none too keen to come to shore on time. The Rangers said it was only occasionally that none came in ... we were thinking our luck was out for quite some time. Eventually Puck came in with her 2 year old calf and swam along the crowded shore a few times before eating her fish reward.

OK, where's my fish?

The kids had spied paddle boats, so after a squizz at the information centre to learn more about the bottle-nosed dolphins, we hired a paddle boat for an hour. It was still pretty cool, so the kids went out first before Dave braved the water to join them. They made him work hard to board, paddling away as he tried to swim to them! While they were out in the water, 5 dolphins started cavorting around in the water. I watched them chasing fish and playing from the shore when they suddenly turned towards the paddle boat and swam around Dave and the kids for about 10 minutes. It was the quietest 10 minutes that paddle boat has ever witnessed, I'll warrant!

We had a picnic lunch at Little Lagoon which was by consensus the most picturesque lunch spot. It is an almost circular lagoon which is linked to the bay. The shallow waters mean hypersalinity and not much lives there, but it was stunningly beautiful. An emu came and stood in the water while we watched, wondering what on earth it was doing!

Gun shearing team ready for action

Another short drive saw us at Francois Peron National Park, which used to be Peron Sheep Station until the WA government took over the lease and declared the Park in 1993. Being without 4WD we could only reach the Peron Homestead Historical Precinct, but we happily occupied ourselves in the 1950s style sheep station buildings. We were all amazed at the unusual procedures at shearing time. The low, shrubby country here prevented the sheep being mustered - or even seen, for that matter. The station hands had to trap the sheep as they came in to drink at the troughs and then run them for up to 2 days through a laneway to the shearing shed! It took a couple of months to trap and shear them all! Although cooking in the caravan drives me nuts at times, I am certainly glad I am not required to feed shearing teams from a corrugated iron shed and a coal range.

Lachie and Jackson went out fishing when we got back to camp. Jackson was delighted to have caught his second ever fish (his first a trout in NZ a few years ago) and Lachie was pleased to add another to his tally.

Tomorrow we hire ocean kayaks for the day and we plan to paddle to Red Bluff from Monkey Mia, hopefully surrounded by dolphins! I'd better join the others and catch some zeds as it will be a big day!

Stay tuned ...