Sunday, January 29, 2012

As The Crow Flies


It seemed like a milestone when we reached a little town Kalbarri just south of Monkey Mia. This coastal point was the most westerly position as the crow files from Brisbane probably the furthest we’ve been away from home; was certainly an interesting fact when talking to family. 


View East to West in a larger map

Its been roughly 40,000km from when we started in Brisbane to now directly 3,800km opposite the country. 


Along the track we found some other random places that weren’t on our list of things to see. The national park close by featured gorges and a place named ‘Natures Window’ which seemed a particular attraction for visiting Asian tourists.






Heading more towards Perth we also came across something very random: a pink lake. The Port Gregory Lake was developed for the Leadmine which soon turned pink because of the build up of bacteria (Dunaliella salina) in the salt. It certainly was an eye opener pulling over on the side of the road in aura or to put it normally...”holy shit dave, its fricken pink!” (Bogan)










Just before the other subs of Perth there’s a place called The Pinnacles boasting huge limestone pillars rising out of the yellow sand. We were able to drive our car though the national park which weaved through the pinnacles which did make for some pretty shots.




 I wouldn’t have liked it any other way because for some reason this particular area housed soooo many flies. There were at least 50 around us at one time and jumping in the car seemed to be the only escape.




We were slightly concerned though heading more into Perth when introduced to bush fires. This state like Queensland is very prone to Cyclones, bush fires, and floods. The summers are long, very hot, and dry which was evident by the bush fires burning in the hills and other country towns. But once we reached the suburbs we noticed what a beautiful and well developed city Perth is. We took the beautiful coastal road along into our caravan park along Scarborough to Cottesloe and fell in love with the place straight away. It was a Sunday afternoon drive by watching people running with dogs, people surfing, swimmers on the beach, pubs overlooking the beach, all within minutes of the CBD. Perth’s urban development designs all their coastal areas around community recreation areas. It’s the beach, path ways for walkers and bikes, grassy areas for picnics, roads, and then private houses. W.A’s ‘wait awhile’ nickname proves that it waits for other states to bugger up and designs something better to make it work. Transport is excellent, designing bus systems that run into major train exchanges which are built in the middle of highways. Interesting view when you’re travelling 100kmhr on the highway and a train passes by on the right hand side.



Well, so far so good. We're enjoying Perth and surrounding. Might hang around awhile and see what we can find. 


Sunday, January 22, 2012

Shark bay - Monkey Mia


After leaving Coral Bay we wanted more action of the west coast and headed down to the very well known world heritage marine park Shark bay. It was a bloody 150km just to get into Monkey Mia from the main road which we drastically underestimated. We rocked up to the Monkey Mia resort around 6pm, I’m pretty sure the receptionist didn’t feel the excitement we were feeling.  We’d been waiting for a long time to finally experience the wonder of the Monkey Mia attraction and tomorrow would be our day hopefully. 



As we checked in the receptionist was saying that there was plenty of room available so we could choose any spot in the unpowered section. Arriving in very late we were introduced to this resort by tents galore, kids running wild, and no spare area for our car. We shuffled around a few people which didn’t help our situation but we hoped tomorrow would be better.




Between 8-12pm daily, usually 5 or so dolphins arrive on the shores for the hand feeding. Dave and I were there ready at 7.30am waiting and still waiting for the dolphins until 10:30am. Apparently, every now and again because of the low tides and cloudy weather, the dolphins arrive late to the shores. We saw at least 10 or so just off shore swimming around so we hoped all of them would come up to the banks which would increase our chances of actually feeding them. So with another hour passing, only 1 dolphin turned up. She was only allowed 4 fish and there were 100 people on the beach all wanting the same thing. Years ago the dolphins would be there constantly and people could touch them without any regulation. But research found the dolphins were losing their calves because they weren’t being taught to fish and could properly milk from their mothers. So now no touching what so ever and once they arrive on shore you are not allowed in the water unless you’re asked to feed them.




So four people were allowed to feed the dolphins; a gentleman beside me had been picked but he declined saying he only wanted to photo them which then resulted in ME BEING PICKED! I was so happy and excited. It made the 150km trip of nothing in, crappy resort accommodation, and the long anticipated wait of the dolphins so worthwhile! Dave was able to capture the moment perfectly.



We visited some other places while we were there including Shell Beach which is exactly described by its name and one of my favourites a little bay we found which nursed all these baby reef and shovel nosed sharks. We were in shin deep water with all these baby sharks in front of us. A few got close which scared us a little but with a few splashes of water they moved away.  It was an amazing free experience that we found. 




















All the dark spots are reef sharks