The drive to Denham was once again shared with a couple of things we have gotten used to since arriving on the west coast of OZ, a raging head-wind and a more recent one, hordes of holiday makers all shifting their camps or returning from the first week of school holidays. The line up at the service station at the Denham intersection was about ten deep. With all of us waiting for fuel queing from north to south the look on the "Britz bus" driving back-packers that pulled up facing head on with the rest of us when he was repeatedly denied access is something that you would need more than an interpreter to understand. Goes to show sometimes there is more than just a language barrier to overcome!?

We broke the drive to Denham with a stop at Hamelin Pool, a place that offers more than just the usual history lesson. While being used as a load out facility for wool among other trade goods as well as a telegraph station as the northern line passed through the area, the rich salty waters found deep in the Hamelin Pool were also more later found to be home to "Stromatolites" thought to be integral in the formation of the right conditions that enabled the first life to form on Earth!? They somehow aided the increase in oxygen in the atmosphere. Walking around we came across signs explaining all this and they used a comic image of "Stumpy" the "Stromatolite", which made the job of getting the kids interested so much easier. Charli was non-stop on about "Stumpy" and where he was in the water, which one he was, which ones of the round rock looking formations were his family and so on for the whole walk! We also got to see a quarry where the locals used to cut bricks from the ground which are made of compacted sea-shells. These bricks were used to make everything on the place and most of the surrounding area.

Enjoying the rest of our blustery drive we were soon enough set up in Denham and no sooner had found our new friends from Quobba Station, Pete and Jemma. While the girls spent the arvo catching up we also shared a couple of drinks in the camp kitchen, out of the wind, with our friends and most of the park! Pete and Jemma were headed back towards home the next day so we wished them well and somehow rounded our two up from a large group and settled down from a long day.

Now Denham has many attractions but it is undoubtably most well known for the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia, only a short drive up the coast amongst all the amazingly clear waters of the area. Charli has been onto us about the dolphin feeding since we crossed the border and had been seeing it advertised endlessly on TV. Kylz sorted our pass and best times to visit and now there was finally going to be peace from the constant nagging about dolphin feeding, or so we thought. Arriving at Monkey Mia with time to spare for the 8am feeding was a mission on its own! Being pretty naive as to the feeding habits of the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphin I had ideas in my mind of getting a bucket of fish and wandering out into the water and throwing "Flipper" a few mullet!! How wrong can one man be? It is a really well run operation with guides in control the whole time and only certain dolphins even being fed. The selection criteria for feeding dolphins seemed to us a bit suss, (needless to say none of us got a crack!) but it is all done to ensure the long term welfare of the Shark Bay dolphins who had apparently been suffering from excess feeding prior to this regime being established in the late eighty's. There was no shortage of dolphins for us to observe though and the girls soon got over the disappointment of not being able to feed them. We spent the better part of two days at Monkey Mia, mainly trying to feed a dolphin, and were lucky enough for them to make the maximum number of 3 visits for feeding on both days. We were also able to see two dolphins actually chasing a flathead through the swimming beach! It is reasonably common we were told and sat watching amazed as they sped through the shallow water only a matter of metres from us. The guy with the mask and snorkel in the middle of them had the best view, and was definitely in the right place at the right time! They are amazing to see doing tricks at Sea-World but as anyone who has seen them in the wild will agree, they really are a remarkable animal.

Monkey Mia also offers plenty of accommodation as well as a van park. It was full at the time of our visit. There is a restaurant and shop, as well as a resort pool, with hot tub that also helped the girls get over their grief of not getting to feed a dolphin!? We also covered one of the walking tracks out along a red sand ridge and back along the amazing white sand beach. Chels and Charli were getting a bit tired on the way back and they got even worse after the tourists on the camel tour walked past us seated high and dry as the camels plodded along the beach.

There are quite a few coastal look-outs along the road to Denham as well as Little Lagoon which is barely 2km out of town. The drive to these look-outs started at Shell Beach for us which as the name suggests is a beach made of nothing but small shells. They are quarried and used as road base and fill as well as landscaping and shell grit for the poultry industry. The girls thought it was alright but it did very little for me. The view from Eagle Bluff however was well worth the drive! Looking down into the clear shallow waters we all got to see why they call it Shark Bay. We watched as any number of small reef sharks, rays and turtles swam below us. We spent the arvo with a few frosties and a picnic on the banks of Little Lagoon. You can drive quite a way around it on the sand and being very shallow for most of it is very popular with families. Chelsea showed some real take charge qualities as she wrangled Charli into towing her for miles around the lagoon on her boogie board following Kylz and I!? Remind you of anyone Adam? No complaints from Charli though and we all enjoyed a bit of fun in the sun.

The Francois Peron national park starts just north of Denham and covers the entire cape. On our way in we first stopped at the historic homestead and sheep shearing shed. Apparently they had to move their shearing shed out of the town as too many of their shearers were spending more time in the town's pubs than shearing sheep! The small hot tub pool filled with natural flowing artesian bore water was the highlight for the girls. Running at 40 degrees we were all pretty well cooked after a short dip! The local group of Emu's provided some excitement for the girls as we watched them drinking at the back of the bore drain and also nearly running into them on the road!

Given that the roads through the park are all very soft sand the park has catered to this with two air points provided to allow tourists to air down their tyres prior to entry and then re-inflate them on the way out. Awesome idea, it was all good quality gear, it all worked as it should and is an idea that more coastal towns or councils should look into! Made our drive into Big Lagoon a breeze! Being a nice sunny day the girls again enjoyed the water as Kylz and I spent our time mainly people watching. Everything from dads fishing to mums snorkelling and even a couple of 200 series cruisers "snatching" each other out of the sandy track. "b*****"! With many places to visit as well as being able to camp in a few of them it would be an easy place to spend more than one day. We saw a small amount of it and with the beauty of the area and the fun driving in the sand it would be a nice place to visit again we both reckon.

Denham is typical of many small tourist towns that have grown from a working class background. You still see the signs of the commercial fishing and other industry but it all seems to blend well into the newer more tourism oriented town. A couple of nice cafes and resorts and the well kept water front with the usual playground and park areas cater well to that market. With plenty to see and a comfortable town to do it from we were glad we had stayed in Denham and not at Monkey Mia. Our friends John and Marlene arrived on the eve of our departure and it was good to catch up with them and share a few tales of travel. With a week to themselves in Denham we reassured them that they would find plenty to fill in their day. Kalbarri was our next stop and looking at the map we both wondered what changes we would be seeing as we made our way closer to the more populated areas of WA.