Day 75: Monkey Mia

It is overcast this morning and quite cold, so we set out to Monkey Mia early and wearing jumper an extra layer. It is a 28 km drive from Denham through a couple of reduced speed zones, so it should take around 30 mins. First up when we get there, is the Monkey Mia Dolphin Experience.

On arrival, there is not much there. A visitors Centre and a very large RAC Caravan Park. There is a fee for entering the conservation zone, $10 pp for Seniors, and the Dolphin Experience is free.

The crowd was still gathering when we arrived, so nothing had yet commenced.

Entrance to the visitors Centre

A large cafe in the RAC Caravan Park is next to the visitors centre and is the main venue at Monkey Mia

The crowd is gathering at the beachfront and the pelicans are already their knowing that the dolphins are about to be fed.

An enthusiastic crowd awaits the "experience"

The crowd has gathered and the compere begins the presentation

The dolphins and  pelicans seemed to get on well together

Five dolphins arrive and appear enthusiastic, but the compere prattles on. 

The presentation continues and the dolphins seem to be losing interest. All of a sudden, a school of fish must have passed close by and they all took off in chase of a meal, sick of waiting for a freebie.

By the time the fish arrived to feed the dolphins, they had all disappeared. Eventually, only one returned for a free feed.

It didn't take long to give it the quota of 3 fish before the show was over.

This was followed by a rush to the cafe for coffee. Those who had been there before had left early and weren't confronted with the queue and 20 minute wait for coffee we experienced.

The early leavers heading for the cafe

We have a wildlife cruise booked to depart from the Jetty at 10 am, so can't venture too far away, not that there is a lot to see, as besides this complex there are only a few bushwalks. It is also windy, and very cold and we break out the spray jackets.

Meeting time for the cruise is 9.45am on the jetty and as we head there the dolphins have already arrived at the beach  for the next "experience". A smaller crowd is gathering to participate.

We move on to catch our cruise.

Our vessel "Aristocat"

Check in was quick and we were underway on time, with a bit of a stiff cold breeze blowing. To our great surprise, the skipper raises the mainsail with one reef in it, and sets a small headsail. In true catamaran tradition the motors continue to run all of the time, but motor sailing probably saved them a bit of diesel over 2.5 hrs.

It was a bit of a tortuous path out through the channel as we are only a couple of hours off low tide, and these waters are very shallow. We are heading out to some sea grass meadows where we hope to see some dugongs. 

The weather is far from perfect

However, we see lots of dugongs and get very few photographs, as they don't stay on the surface for long.

This was all I got, one dugong stilling its head up for air.

We did see lots of dugongs, but conditions made photography difficult. The only other wildlife we saw was plenty of dolphins.

Once back on land we decided to head back to Denham for a late lunch. The venues are less crowded.

The Shark Bay Hotel was awaiting us, the most Westerly Hotel in Australia, and just across the road from the water. The weather is milder in Denham and we sit outside enjoying a bit of warmth from the sun, sheltered from the wind.

Shark Bay Hotel

A very good hamburger and a middy of beer for $28 

The beach is across the road

After lunch we returned to the van for a leisurely afternoon, which included a walk along the seafront later on when the wind had abated and the cloudy skies were clearing.

It is pretty easy to see where the channel is at low tide (looking straight down the boat ramp)

No one on shore was catching fish, but the boats returning from offshore looked like they had good catches.

A sculpture on the waterfront commemorates the 400th anniversary of Dirk Hartog's Historic Landing at Shark Bay in 1616.