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