We drove into Denham and Shark Bay surrounded on either side of the highway by beautiful carpets of wildflowers, in purples, yellows and whites...just lovely. This was something I particularly wanted to see, WA in the Spring, and it is just as stunning as I imagined. We hope to see much more as we travel further south.
Denham is a pretty seaside holiday town, and we stopped there for lunch and information and a permit to stay overnight at Eagle Bluff, a really quiet, beach freecamp area about 20km out of Denham. As we drove around to pick out our spot, we accidently found a really soft bit of sand and ended up very quickly getting all four wheels under the sand! (Unfortunately we don't have photos of this as I was too stressed at the time to take any!) After we tried hard to dig ourselves out, we found a fella who was willing to help us out, but after some discussion, we all decided it was best to unhitch the van, drive the car out (which we did with no problems!!! Go the Patrol!) then worry about getting Captain Slow out. We managed to pull the van sideways with a towrope on the Patrol, hitch up again on firmer sand, and pull Captain Slow free! What an afternoon! But we did feel proud to have managed it all by ourselves! It kind of made up for how silly I felt driving into sinking sand! We will not forget Eagle Bluff in a hurry!
Once finding our firmer spot though, we enjoyed a nice cool dip in the crystal clear waters of the bay, a friendly emu visit, and another spectacular sunset. The bay water is so still, flat and clear, it is hard to believe it is water, especially after being up at Pt Quobba - what a contrast!
On Saturday, we rose and left our freecamp before the sun was up, excited at the prospect of seeing dolphins in the wild! We headed to Monkey Mia (about 40km away) for the chance to meet dolphins at 7.30am for their breakfast feed. We had such a special time learning about and watching these amazing animals swim and play and relax around our legs, and at the second visit they made in to the beach, Brienna was chosen to feed one of the females called Puck. How special is that! It was worth the bogging and trouble to have such a special experience! (I must mention, they can never guarantee a dophin visit as they are kept wild, only given a couple of fish each and not being touched, but they don't miss too many days in the year apparently).
Later that day, we visited Shell Beach (yep, a beach made up entirely of little white shells) so there is no getting sand stuck between your toes here, quite a fascinating place. We then went on to Hammelin Pool to check out the weird Stromatolites (apparently according to Scientists are living single-celled microbes that are the earliest or simplest forms of life) which are also quite fascinating.
A big couple of days trying to fit it all in, but the turnoff the highway was really worth it. Now for some rest days...
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