Shark Bay WA
Shark Bay is a world Heritage Area which comprises the stunning Francois Peron National Park, Monkey Mia & Denham as well as Hamelin Pool, the Stromatolites and Dirk Hartog Island national Park. There are so many beautiful bays to explore with those stunning turquoise blue waters of the Indian Ocean against the stark red sandy cliffs and beaches.
We based ourselves in Denham which was central to the whole coastline. We ran into some friends we had met along the way and drove out to the Francois Peron National Park on the first day. The drive out is about 45km from Denham on a really sandy road so this meant letting our tyres down quite significantly to be able to get through to Peron Point and Skipjack Point which are the furtherest points. This was quite an adventure as the road was, as well as being very sand also very bumpy. I think we broke 2 stubbies of beer (ouch !!) in the car fridge as well as the straps that held down the fridge so from that you can imagine how shook up we were by the end of the trip (AND WE DID IT Again a few days later !!!). It was so worth the trip as the coastline at both the points was truly spectacular – the colours were just breathtaking !!! We were so impressed that we went back a few days later to explore it more. On our way back we called into Peron Homestead where we came across a whole family of Echinda’s under the old shearing shed. I don’t reckon any of us had actually ever seen echidna’s so big and in such vast numbers – that in itself was remarkable. Whilst at the homestead you can have a swim in the Artesian Hot tub which is about 40 degrees. It was nice getting in but not so great getting out with a fairly cool breeze blowing !!! Nice place to relax for a few hours if you can stand the heat.
We also visited Monkey Mia which wasn’t what we really expected as for a start you have to pay $15 to line up with 100’s of people to see a couple of dolphins swim past and if you’re lucky you might get picked out of the crowd to feed one. I’m not sure what i was expecting but I actually thought there would be a lot more than 2 dolphins !!!! Nice resort here though with a great cafe with nice coffee !!
There was also a lot of beautiful little bays to explore right down the coast. We spent a day driving down the coast and driving into all the bays and taking photos. One of these Shell Beach is a beach that is made up of solely Hamelin cockle shells which apparently are about 10m deep – amazingly some of the old buildings in Denham were built with some of these shells. apparently they used to make bricks out of them. Eagle Bluff Lookout was a great place to check out the whole coastline as there was a boardwalk that ran right along the cliff and you could look down into the water – apparently you can sometimes see Dugongs in the water below, but of course we never came across one!! Little Lagoon was also a beautiful little place to explore.
Unfortunately for us there was a few days where it was so windy that we were restricted on what we could do. The last few days however we shifted down by the beach to the Denham Seaside Caravan Park and had a site right on the beach. Lucky for us the weather was picture perfect and we spent those few days just doing walks a long the local beach and around the town. One day we were walking back from the beach and came across a Emu with 6 chicks, the funny part was that he stopped at the crossing and waited for a car to stop before he crossed the road with his brood – FUNNY !!
We did call into Hamelin Pool to see the Stromolites but unfortunately the boardwalk had been damaged by the recent cyclone so you were unable to access the area – this will have to wait until next time !!
A great place to spend a few days and to explore a truly beautiful area.
Next stop Kalbarri…………….
