After hearing mixed reports about Monkey Mia, mainly negative, we headed out thinking that it would be somewhat of a disappointment. We woke up early (6am) and drove out in a bid to see the famous dolphins. As we patiently waited Nick befriended one of the rangers, entertaining each other with friendly flirting and banter. Nick claims it was in an attempt to have her pick our kids to feed the dolphins - yeah right....
A group (or party) of female dolphins and their young came close to shore treating us with their playful antics flipping, diving and rolling around in the shallows. Ranger Tanya also entertained us with her spiel about the dolphins. At the first feeding none of us were picked to feed the dolphins, but with a bit more flirting and coaxing Nick managed to sweet talk her into prompting the volunteers to pick one of us at the next feeding.
While we were waiting for the second dolphin feed we enjoyed a wander around the grounds of the resort and foreshore, where there we heaps mother emus and her growing chics strutting around. We also contemplated the idea of going on a cruise after finding out we could get a discount.
At about 9am the dolphins came back in to shore for another fish snack, and sure enough Abbey and Summer and Jayde (another new friend) were all picked to feed a dolphin.
Not ones to let the opportunity of a discount go to waste we did decide to spend the rest of the day cruising around Shark Bay on "Aristicat 2" in search of some dugongs, dophins, turtles and a visit to a pearl farm. The skipper, Chris, had watched a few to many Austin Powers movies and used humour to run through the rules and regulations.
Within minutes of sailing the boom net was lowered and the boys jumped on enjoying the thrill of the ride. Next it was the the girls turn. Jo, Lauren (Jayde's mum) and I hopped on, and almost immediately were being dragged along at a fast pace, twice almost losing my bathers.
We pulled up to the Blue Lagoon Pearl farm, which looked like a floating house and recently been made famous as one of the sons, of the owner, Jamie was on Farmer Wants A Wife. Jamie wasn't there, but his brother who looks very similar gave us a guided tour. After being tempted by the pearl jewellery available to buy we climbed back on board Aristicat in search of a dudong. Unfortunately we didn't see any, but did spot a few turtles and quite a few dolphins many of which swam along side the boat. We certainly had a awesome day at Monkey Mia.
On the way back to Denham we went to Francis Peron National Park to the homestead, where there is an Artesian spa which is 40*c. It was incredibly hot, and we didn't last much longer than 15minutes before we felt like we were being cooked.
Eagle Bluff was another early morning rise. We heard that in the mornings it was possible to see sharks swimming below. We had a yummy egg and bacon breakie at Eagle Bluff with Jo and Pete then went for a walk along the board walk. It wasn't long before we spotted a sting/manta ray, and a turtle, then I spotted a dark shadow swimming past. Upon further look through the binoculars we could see a dorsal fin, it was a nervous shark.
The day was warming up so off shell beach for a swim and play on the shore with millions of tiny white shells. Although sharp on the feet it was and amazing site and the water was most refreshing. Not long before we were going to leave someone put a small bird (which we thought was a baby cormorant) into the water. It wanted to swim near us and seemed quite weak, so Matt bundled it up and took we it to the rangers office in town. We found out it was a Greeb, which was quite skinny so the ranger was going to hand feed it for a day or two before re releasing it. Matt took great care to make sure it didn't get too stressed, and was relieved that the ranger would care for it.
Josh had a successful time squidding off the jetty. In 3 nights he'd caught 12 squid. One evening I thought I'd join him. I wasn't having any success with squid, and I could see some good size flathead lying below. I hooked up the rod and tried catching one with bait. It wasn't interested at all, so I tried a soft plastic. I was literally tickling it's nose with the line for a good 10 minutes before it finally took it. I also caught about 7 red eye and tossed them back thinking they weren't good eating. It wasn't until a couple of people said they were infact good that I started keeping them.
The next night there were more flatheads lying in the sand. I caught one easily, then Nick tried his luck and after persisting some time, caught one too. All the kids including Abbey caught red eye as well. I have become quite skilled at filleting and can even skin them as well.
On our last morning, we packed up nice and early (after an sms from Dana - funny things time zones) and went to get petrol. The power had gone out in town and so neither petrol station could pump petrol. According to the computer on the car we had 140km til empty, and the next road house was 130km. Sounds good in theory but a car computer doesn't calculate when you're towing a van! With a close eye watching the petrol gauge and constant calculations as to the possibility of running out we decided to give the stromatolites a miss. We had already seen thrombolites so weren't too disappointed. With about 30km to go Nick was even starting to get a bit anxious (usually it is me) and slowed to 60km/hr and turned the air conditioner off. We reached the roadhouse with 1km flashing on the petrol gauge. After filling up we headed off to Carnarvon before heading out to Quobba Station for a few days. Josh had seen the fish on their website and was excited at the prospect of bigger fish.
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