Very heavy rain fell last night as forecast and it is still very overcast this morning. We will have to see how the day develops, but intend just doing short trips out of Denham to the nearby sightseeing attractions today. If the weather improves, it will be Monkey Mia tomorrow. After breakfast, we walked down to the visitor information centre to book a wildlife cruise at Monkey Mia for tomorrow morning. The weather forecast says the rain is gone, so hopefully the cruise will go ahead.
There was a sign on the door of the centre advising that the highway is still closed South of the Overlander Road House, but the police are guiding truck traffic through. Hopefully, it should reopen later this morning. There seemed to be a few anxious people at the centre trying to get up date information.
Also at the centre was a small art gallery, and section devoted to the demise of HMAS Sydney, which was sunk off Shark Bay, near Steep Point in 1941 by the German ship HSK Kormoran, with the loss of all 645 on board. It was Australia's worsts Naval disaster. The Kormoran also sunk as a result of the altercation, but they abandoned ship and scuttled, with most surviving.
An excellent 3D movie covering the disaster was playing in the small theatre there. With tomorrow organised, we headed off in the car to Eagle Bluff, about 20 km back along the road we drove in on. A lookout boardwalk has been built high up on the bluff overlooking the ocean and Eagle Island. It is a pretty stunning piece of coastline.
The bluff
Eagle Island
The island was once covered in guano and was stripped bare, as it was a valuable source of fertiliser. It is now a rookery for birds.
The boardwalk runs along the edge of the bluff
Looking back towards Denham
On a perfect day, apparently the boardwalk is a great place to observe wildlife in the crystal clear waters below, sharks, turtles, rays, dugongs and whales further out. Unfortunately for us, today was not a perfect day for observing the wildlife.
Heading back to Denham, we called in at Ocean Park Aquarium, where there was a nice cafe with ocean views for us to enjoy a cup of coffee.
We decided not to go and see them feed sharks in a tank, but it was a big hit with the kids.
Another lookout, looking back at Denham was our last call before returning to the caravan park for lunch.
Quite a few washouts in the roads after last nights heavy rain
Denham
Unfortunately the rain returned in the early afternoon, but only light rain. It had cleared by around 2.30 pm, so we continued our exploration of the immediate area. We went to see Little Lagoon, a place the locals often use for a bit of water sport and picnics. It wasn't that little and it is very shallow. The sign below did not encourage us to get in the water.
More interesting and picturesque than the lagoon, was Little Lagoon Creek which feeds the lagoon from the ocean.
There were a couple of these shelter/lookouts along the creek bed
Denham also has a Golf Club, which was close to Little Lagoon, that demanded further investigation. We discovered that it is the most Westerly golf club in Australia.
The course is not for the faint hearted. The fairways are rugged and the rough is really rough.
Looking down the 1st Fairway
The Rough
Rather than sand, the greens seem to be composed of the cockle shells that are everywhere here
Competition day is tomorrow and unfortunately we have made other arrangements at Monkey Mia, so the temptation to play such an exclusive course quickly passed.
I am sure the 19th hole gets a good workout after 18 holes on this course
It is time to go back to town. On the way we discovered there was a second supermarket, which dutifully visited and bought a few things we couldn't get from the IGA.
Our last task of the day was to find out where we could buy some of Shark Bay's famous seafood, in particular some scallops. A quick google search led us to a light industrial area where a seafood processing plant had a retail outlet. We left happily with 500 gm of freshly frozen scallops and some very fresh whiting fillets. They had a great range of seafood, mostly frozen, which seems to be the case everywhere.
Comments
Post a Comment