What time is it there?!

Further south than Exmouth but almost as far from the main road is the town of Denham. A few Kms further up the road is Monkey Mia, which is really nothing more than a holiday camp (although it caters for everyone from campers and backpackers to more expensive 'villas'). There are in fact no monkeys here, there is only one reason why most people are here and that is to see dolphins.

The story is similar to Bunbury, some years ago somebody managed to hand feed some dolphins on the beach and they have been coming back ever since. We only spent two mornings at Bunbury, so it may not be a fair comparison, but we saw a lot more dolphins here and the beach, weather and water temperature were much better. Once again they really did come right up to within a few feet of the beach, and the water was also much clearer which helped the photography. Feeding takes place three times during the morning (depending on when the dolphins turn up). They also feed the local pelicans who would otherwise try and steal from the dolphins, in fact the pelicans seem to have an easy life because after they've been fed they stand around the lawns 'drinking' water from the sprinklers.

In the afternoons the dolphins also tend to return and swim around not far from the beach, amongst all the people and the small boats tied up offshore. It's probably one of very few places in Australia where there isn't a stampede for the shore when fins are spotted in the water!

We didn't go on any of the boat tours here, but if you're here you can take trip out to try and see the local Dugongs. Apparently about 10% of the worlds population live in the surrounding Shark Bay (they feed on the large amounts of sea grasses which are the reason for the bay having World Heritage status).

There's one more thing to see around here, just back near the junction with the main highway. Stromatolites. Huh?! The Stromatolites were only discovered here in the 1950's and apparently there are only two or three places in the world where they are known to exist (although this is claimed to be the most accessible site).

There's really no way of making this sound any more exciting, but basically we stopped to look at some old rocks........... but these aren't just any old rocks, they're 'living' rocks and they are 3.5 billion years old. Well, the actual rocks we saw may not be that old but they have existed in the same form for all that time. You may not be surprised to hear that they aren't all that exciting to look at! So unless you are really into the science then it probably isn't worth making the 850 mile round trip from Perth just to see them, but if you're passing anyway then it's worth stopping. Check out the photos to see just how exciting they really are.....

The dolphin photos are here.