Denham & Monkey Mia

After leaving the westernmost point of the Australian mainland we decided to duck up the road to Monkey Mia.  Jen and I can both remember hearing as kids about the wild dolphins that come into the beach, so we figured we should go for a look seeing how we were so close.

On the way to Denham we pulled into Shell Beach for a look.....when you walk onto the beach it becomes pretty clear how it got its name. 

I'd hate to have the job of counting the number of shells on this beach.

The kids couldn't resist going for a dip.

One of the early arrivals for the morning feeding at Monkey Mia.

The dolphins in Shark Bay are an Indo-Pacific Bottlenose's.  They have coming to the beach here since the 60's.

It is amazing how many people rolled up considering it's not school holidays.

I couldn't believe the kids' luck when they were chosen to hand feed one of the dolphins, "Nicky".  

After the feeding we all jumped onto a catamaran to sail around the bay.  The first stop was at a working black pearl farm.

                                     

It was interesting to learn how they farm pearls, it's not an easy way to make a quick buck with it taking up to 7 years to get a return from an oyster.

Jen and I relaxing on the catamaran's "trampolines" while the kids were busy.

Bronte checking out one of the hitchhikers.

Bumming a lift.

Shark Bay is also home to a huge population of Dugongs.  We spotted dozens while cruising across the seagrass beds.

I couldn't figure out why none of the other passengers put their hand up when offered a chance to go boom netting.  It was painfully obvious when I got into the water.  I can now say we have tried boom netting for the grand total of about 3 and a half minutes - it was freaking freezing!! ;-)

The weather was too nice to pass an opportunity to take a paddle boat for a lap.

Seth loved getting towed around while others were left to do the hard yakka of peddling.

More to come.....