Shark Bay Region

Having left Prince Leonard, we travelled through towards Monkey Mia. We spent a night beside the stromatolites at an "interesting" caravan park. The stromatolites are the old living species on the planet. The most amazing thing about these rock-like structures is that someone thought they might be alive! They have survived here as the water is super-salty and their predators could not survive.

Next we made it up to Denham and Monkey Mia. Although it was pretty and the dolphins are wonderful, we were disappointed in the tourist rip off factor. Everything was great, but over-priced as they have a monopoly. The conservation authorities on the other hand were very informative. We had expected to swim with and touch the dolphins, but this practice has been stopped in the best interests of the dolphins.They did come up into the very shallow water, and we loved being that close.

We also went on a catamaran trip to see the wildlife in deeper water. Unfortunately, the dugongs and turtles were on holidays, but we saw lots of dolphins. The area is home to over 4500 of them.




Sadly, we said goodbye to Andrew here. It's really hard to spend 3 weeks driving your son out into the remote desert, and then speeding off without him!