The next destination on our slow crawl down the west coast was the oddly-named Monkey Mia. This is a resort which has absolutely nothing to do with monkeys, but is famous for the dolphins which come to the beach every day to be hand-fed with fish by the tourists. Katy had never been particularly close to a dolphin before and it's been many years since I saw one close up, so we thought it would be a fun thing to do.

We made sure we arrived early because the resort doesn't allow campers to book ahead unless they are on powered sites - and these were all filled up because of the continuing school holidays. There were plenty of unpowered spots left when we pulled up, though there was precious little room by the end of the day.

The resort at Monkey Mia is one of the nicest places to stay that we have come across over here. There is a beautiful curve of silver sand fringing the by-now familiar many-shades-of-blue Indian Ocean. Large catamarans and smaller power boats bob up and down in the bay. There are lawns shaded by palm trees as well as swimming pools, bars and restaurants. In addition to the dolphin feeding, the resort also offers sailing, fishing and off-road driving trips.

One of the best things about the place, however, is that it doesn't overcharge. If you look up Monkey Mia on a map you can see it is near the end of a peninsula and very much at the end of the road. Most resorts in such locations, once they capture their customers, squeeze them dry with overcharging, but not here. Camping is a standard $14pppn, petrol is only a few cents dearer than the nearest towns, the food is reasonable with bar meals at around $10-14 and the beer is not only fairly priced but there is far more choice than most bars in the country.

Katy was particularly happy to find that the week's "special" was Monteith's - a New Zealand beer which we have sorely missed in Australia. We had a little trip down our personal beer memory lane - Monteith's Original, Celtic Red and the Black - while she beat me at pool.

The guide books and information centres always advise people wanting to see the dolphins to get up early and go to the first session which starts at around 7.30am because it is the one virtually guaranteed a dolphin or two. We therefore dug ourselves out of our tent and made our way down to the beach on time to find about 100 people already in attendance, lined up a few feet into the water.

We took our places in the parade and listened as a guide explained how the dolphins had started coming to Monkey Mia. They are naturally inquisitive anyway, of course, and as was the case in many places had taken to following the local fishing boats in the hope of getting anything thrown overboard. Then in the 1970s a woman had started feeding them fish from her boat by hand. Eventually she just stood on the beach and one of the dolphins had swum in and taken the fish from her.

That started the whole thing off and at one time, anyone could turn up, buy a bucket of fish and feed as many dolphins as they wanted. That sounded like a great idea - not least to the dolphins, I would imagine - but wasn't good for the animals' long-term health. With no need to provide for themselves, they couldn't even be bothered to teach their young to fend for themselves, resulting in a 90% infant mortality rate.

This led the Dept of Conservation to step in and regulate the whole shebang, with feeding limited to three times a day and only a small amount at a time. In addition, no calves are fed until they get to a certain age and know how to catch fish for themselves.

That was all very interesting, but everyone had come to see the dolphins of course and hopefully be the lucky ones plucked at random from the crowd to do the actual feeding. While the guide was talking, a few dolphins swam around, waiting for their breakfast. First, however, a lurking pelican had to be distracted with a couple of morsels of its own because otherwise it would try to muscle in and steal the fish.

Once the all-clear was given, the fish were brought out in large silver buckets and a mixed assortment of tourists selected. We weren't among the lucky ones, of course, though it didn't particularly bother us. Katy would have had very mixed feelings at being asked to hold a dead fish - one of the hated silver-grey varieties rather than the pretty ones in striped pyjamas - especially as it still had its head on.

It was a bit of a scrum, to be honest, with kids trying to push to the front and adults trying to take photos of the instant the fish disappeared down the smiling dolphin's gullet. In addition, the light at that time of day was pretty poor for photography. We weren't totally disappointed as we had expected something like this, but neither was it fantastic. We therefore nipped off for a quick cup of tea and a slice of toast before returning to the beach in case any of the dolphins still felt similarly peckish.

No sooner had we got back, however, than several aquatic mammals reappeared in search of a second snack. This was much better, not least because most people had gone off for breakfast or, in the case of the coach tours, to the next destination on their packed itineraries. With no crowds, we could see the dolphins far more easily. And the dolphins - Indo-Pacific Bottlenose variety, if you're interested - seemed to be happier with fewer people around. They came much closer and some of the younger ones even leapt around in the manner of trained animals in Sea World or similar. It was more of the same for the third feed, with even smaller numbers of people in attendance.

We also learned more from the guides about the individual dolphins. There was one called Puck who was pregnant. She and one called Nicky - both of them in their 30s - were the friendliest in terms of getting close, along with the latter's calf, who was called Fin. Nicky had been one who neglected most of her offspring when she could get free fish all day, but Fin looked healthy enough and was one of those who could be seen gambolling around in the water.

Although dolphins are always depicted as friendly animals - partly due to their mouths being fixed in a human smile - we discovered they are not always exactly pleasant. As well as the child neglect, the standard mating ritual involves a herd of males physically kidnapping a female. They then take her away for a period of at least a few days and not letting her away until she is pregnant. And rather than employing peackock-like displays of "choose me!" or performing ritual aquatic dances, the male dolphins essentially carry out a violent gang rape that should have King Neptune announcing a royal inquiry into crime in his undersea kingdom. Puck once had to endure this treatment for no less than 42 days!

Overall, while the first feed was the only one that was pretty much guaranteed, it was a far better experience subsequently. If you go to Monkey Mia you might as well get up and go to the first session, but hang around and you should get most of your enjoyment afterwards. We were packing up on the second morning and the family in the next tent said they had just returned from the first feed. We told them that the later ones were much better - they hadn't even realised these existed so went off to the beach. After half an hour they were back, feeling very pleased because not only had they seen far more, but one of the boys in the family had been chosen to do the feeding!

Richard