Day 29

Continuing northwards we enter into the Coral Coast. The Coral Coast is probably most commonly known for Monkey Mia, where the Dolphins come in for feeding. The country side we drive through reminds us of crossing the Nullarbor. Today's temperature is 36°, with the air-conditioning pumping in the car we really feel the heat when we get out, especially as there is no breeze.

Our home tonight is Fowler's Camp, at Shark Bay. We are able to set up approx. 10 meters off the beach. It's a 24 hour maximum stay, managed by Parks and Wildlife, there are only 4 other campers here. The boys set out the crab net, unfortunately there are no rewards the next morning. An hour before sunset, a family of 17 Emu's stroll down the beach past our camp.

Day 30

A 20km drive sees us in Denham, it's a beautiful sunny day with a very light breeze. Our camp tonight is the Denham Seaside Tourist Village, we secure a site overlooking the turquoise water of the bay. As Brad and I set up camp the boys explore the beach finding hermit crabs, they collect a few to have crab races with. On the foreshore there are plenty activity, we see a bit of the Anzac day march, there are many people returning from their fishing adventures on their boats bringing in catches of snapper. Unfortunately there is no boat hire here! One of the noteable features in town is the shell restaurant; its bricks are made of little white shells. Emu's freely wonder the streets.

In the afternoon the boys snorkel around the Jetties, spotting several fish and manage to retrieve 4 snagged squid jigs other fishermen have lost. One of the locals recommends trying the jetty at night; evidently the squid are attracted to the jetty lights. Unfortunately, this does not yield any decent catches, there is also to much competition, with some 30 odd fishermen on the small jetty!

Day 31

Today we head out to Monkey Mia. The Dolphin feeding is advertised until 12pm, we arrive at 10.30am and it's all over for the day! Yesterday we booked onto the 1pm afternoon yacht cruise from Monkey Mia, we thought these would time in well together. As we missed feeding today, however, we are allowed to use today's entry fee to come back tomorrow morning. Instead, we have some downtime at the RAC Resort beachfront Café; it's a very relaxing setting. There are emu's wondering. Some others in the Café have their dogs out on the lawns, the Emu's couldn't care about them, the dogs are interested, but are not barking at them like Lola (our dog would).

Unfortunately today the weather is not the usual sunny days the area is known for. It's overcast with light showers (and predictions of thunderstorms!). As we board the 60 ft. catamaran the sun is trying to break through the clouds. We have a pleasant motor sale, the rain and thunder holds off. If time wasn't an issue for the skipper we could have sailed at around 4 knots. The cloudy skies today means the animal spotting is much harder. We sail out to the seagrass beds hoping to see the wildlife. We keep spotting potential Dolphin sightings, many waves and light reflections look like Dolphin fins. A couple of pods of Dolphins wait unit the closing minutes of the voyage until they visit us. They swim around us a bit and ride the bow wave. Unfortunately no Dugongs today, we are approaching the end of their season.

Day 32,

We jump out of bed and drive straight to Monkey Mia. We are there by 7am and have breakfast on the foreshore. The weather is still a little off and the Dolphins arrive later than they have recently appeared. They start arriving at approx. 8am. Parks and Wildlife only feed out to the same 4 Dolphins, they know the Dolphins by their markings. Should other Dolphins appear they are not feed. Only until 6 months ago they used to feed 5 Dolphins, the 5th Dolphin recently passed away. Upon asking questions we learn they have a potential 5th feeder about to be tested to see if they will meet their requirements. Dolphins in the wild do not eat dead fish, not all Dolphins will take the dead fish they feed, and they will not feed out to the males as they are too aggressive. One or two of the Dolphins they feed to are reaching their maximum life span of 40 years!

Regulations only allow them to do 3 Dolphin feedings a day, providing a maximum of 20% of their daily feed requirements. We are there for the first two feeds. The boys are very lucky to be picked in the first feed to be able to personally feed the Dolphin (today there would be over 100 people present). In this feed the 4 Dolphins that are fed are close up on the beach, however swimming not far off are their calves. A few of the calves get impatient, waiting for mum to return for milk and start jumping around to get attention.

In the second feeding Brad and I are lucky to be selected to feed the Dolphin.

We had to head back to camp to pack up to ensure we are out by the 10am departure time and hit the road again, off to Carnarvon.

Carnarvon is a surprising area. They grow a large percentage of the state's fruit and vegetables here. It is the only Australian town where the desert runs out to the ocean. We see this as we walk out their 1 mile jetty. Unfortunately, the Jetty is in disrepair, we walk in fear of falling through. The planks are severely rotted and holed, the train tracks are rusted and the railings, well you wouldn't like to rely upon them if they were there, which it wasn't in some places! The last 1/5th of the Jetty is fenced off and in real disrepair! We have noticed in WA a distinct reduction in the OHS that we are used to on the East Coast.

Tomorrow we are off to the Museum and space station in the Morning, then continue into Ningaloo Reef/Exmouth area.