We’ve been staying at Denham Seaside Caravan Park on Shark Bay, near Monkey Mia. There are so many amazing places to visit in this area. Many of them have French names, which may explain why 50% of the people we have met here are French tourists. On our way in and out, we passed the 26th Parallel.

So, here are the places we visited.

Monkey Mia to see the dolphins that come to the shore each morning to be fed. There were two mothers, each with a calf.

A sail around Shark Bay on a catamaran to see dugongs on Aristocat 2. It was captained and crewed by two young women, Mel and Genna. Mel with the red hair was the captain. They were amazing, so lovely and so knowledgeable about the bay. It’s the end of the dugong season when they are moving to warmer water. We didn’t see any the first time so were invited back a second day to try again, and that time we saw one that surfaced several times.

The dugong.

Francois Peron National Park is spectacular. So many colours of sand and water, and every beach we visited was different. Some of the roads/tracks were interesting to travel on.

Big Lagoon is in Francois Peron National Park.  There is one area where fishing is allowed. We ate WA Butterfish for entree that night.

At the entrance to Francois Peron National Park is the Peron Homestead precinct, which includes an artisan hot tub from a bore that was sunk in 1922 to a depth of 540 metres. It’s free and can be accessed by 2WD. When free flowing it produces 170,000 litres per day at a constant temperature of 40°C and was originally used for cattle. Today the bore has been capped to control the flow. It was really hot.

Shell Beach, no sand, just billions of shells. The glare off the water and shells was amazing and I had a smudge on my lens. The water is twice as saline as other parts of Shark Bay.

We were told that Gaulet Bluff was a great place for fishing, so we headed out. It is a beautiful place, and we met yet another two French tourists which was lovely, but the fish were not at home that day. There was no sand, only shells.

Little Lagoon is just outside Denham.

Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve,  in L’haridon Bight. This is one of only a few places in the world with living marine stromatolites, which are a bit like coral, less attractive but also fascinating.

Coquina (Shell block) Quarry, where the shells are so compacted it can be cut into blocks for building and was quarried during the 1950’s and 1960’s due to a lack of other building materials in the area. It is now a historical site.

Heading north, cheers til next time, Helen and Tim