Days 202-206
Trip Start
Sep 14, 2006
1
151
169
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Exmouth,
Australia
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
In the morning we set off for Denham. This was a more interesting day which started off with a bit of abseiling at the Loop and Z-bend gorges within the Kalbarri National Park
01 Me at the Pinnacles Desert
. I did one descent in the normal abseil fashion and then another face-down. I didn't look to see how far the descent was before I began in case I got the willies - it ended up being pretty far! .We also saw some great rock formations and views at Natures Window. Next up were the Stromatolites - curious sedimentary growth structures that live in shallow water. I have no idea how they are formed because I didn't understand the detailed plaques there but they were impressive and have a beauty of their own. Nathan took us on to a marine centre where we saw some great sea life in tanks and ponds. I really liked the manta rays who slithered up the sides of the tank wanting food - that meant you could stroke the ends of their faces which were pretty cute. They also had turtles which look innocent enough but they have strong beaks that can chop your finger off if you're unlucky! We were given a tour by a Dutch sounding guide who was very enthusiastic about the fish at the centre. Last was a huge tank teeming with sharks. He talked about the sharks and grabbed a nylon wire with a fish attached. It was good fun watching the sharks go for the fish and eventually one shark pulled so hard the fish came away from the nylon and the shark got his supper.Denham was a nice spot. Being Good Friday all the bottle shops were closed for business but we found a bar that would serve us beer if we bought a meal so Nathan organised a good Easyrider discount. By now I had met most of the other passengers pretty well and we had a good evening in Denham.
On the road again in the morning of Easter Saturday, this time heading for Coral Bay. Our first stop was Monkey Mia. This is a very touristy place and being the holiday weekend I feared it would be heaving with people
02 The Leaning Tree
. Monkey Mia is a beach that is famous for the wild Dolphins that swim in and let people feed them. It's well monitored so that the dolphins are all named and not given more than 25% of their daily intake. That makes sure they keep their hunting skills. We arrived at about 7.30am in the hope of beating the crowds which we did to some extent. Standing on the beach seeing nothing but water was a little disappointing at first but Nathan was saying "Don't worry, they're like clockwork". Moments later a fin was visible and the first dolphin came in to the shallows. The crowd all took a step forward ankle deep and were well restrained given that the park rangers weren't there yet. By the time the rangers were there a few more dolphins were swimming around the rangers began their talk about the dolphins of Monkey Mia. I loved the way the dolphins turned their bodies so their eyes are out of the water so that they can get a good look at the crowd. That talk finished off with the first feeding of the day and more staff arrived into the water with buckets of fish. One of the girls in our group, Donna, was chosen to hand a fish to the dolphin directly in front of us which was cool. After she had done that the ranger scanned the crowd for another person to feed and picked me! I was chuffed and handed my camera to one of our group before entering the water. I took the dead fish by the tail and looked down at this adorable dolphin below. She, named Surprise, was looking up at me patiently and had her mouth open ready to receive her breakfast
03 Me abseiling the gorge face up
. It was a really nice thing to do and something I wasn't expecting at all.After the dolphins we went to some great look-out points around Shark Bay. From one we could see small sharks and more manta rays in the shallows beneath us. Then we visited Shell Beach - no sand, just identical tiny white shells. Later on the bus we passed the Tropic of Capricorn and found a dried up river - W.A. is in the fifth year of a drought. Much of the water around here is de-salinated which means it's old sea water with most, not all, of the salt removed. It's OK to shower in but completely undrinkable. The scenery we've been driving through is low lying scrub land and bush. There are plenty of kangaroos around and a few emus too. Another prominent feature are all the termite mounds. Each nest holds millions of termites in rock hard formations. The hostel at Coral Bay was full so I couldn't extend my stay there which was a shame because Coral Bay is good and most of the people I'd spent time with on the bus were getting off for a few days. Nathan cooked up a barbecue and I ate my first kangaroo, it was actually really good and I'd like to have more.
In the morning we snorkeled in the bay but it was windy and I didn't last long. I struggled with the equipment in Thailand when they just threw us off a boat into deep water and let us get on with it. So I still don't have the hang of it yet and just swam around for a bit. Later, after we had arrived in Exmouth, we went to a National Park and found two more beaches where I gave snorkeling another go. The wind had dropped and I was able to get a good 30-40 minutes of quality snorkeling. We swam over coral that was teeming with fish - the biggest were about 50cm long and pretty fat. It was unnerving at first seeing so many big fish right up close but I enjoyed the colours and the coral greatly
04 Me abseiling the gorge face down
. It was the first time I'd seen anything like that before and I want to do more now.Nathan has been a great guide and despite finishing his tour itinerary took us to a lighthouse in the early evening where we saw a nice sunset before returning to our camp site for another good barbecue. I'm in one of those mobile homes at the moment. It has two sets of bunk-beds and one room with a double bed in it. I was the only person in there so I grabbed the double under "first-come first-served" rules.
It's now Monday morning and the tour has moved on to its next stop Northbound. Exmouth is as far as I'm going so I'll be hanging around here for a week before getting back to Perth on one of the express bus services - you still need to stop for a night somewhere because it is so far!
