Denham 9/8/08

Denham Car Kilometres: 169,758

Distance Travelled: 500km

Total Distance Travelled: 1507km

Denham is within the Shark Bay area (proudly announced on the road signs for about 200km's anywhere near Denham). It is pretty much a 3 or 4 street town and is officially the most westerly town in Australia.We arrived in Denhamafter another day of driving around 400 or so kilometres and checked into the Seaside Tourist Village which, was aptly named in the fact that we could see the sea from our tentand the beach started approximately 1 metre or so from the door. On arriving and doing the customary tent set up and un-pack routine we decided that instead of exploring the beach or stocking up on supplies etc at the 1 grocery shop in the town (incidentally also the petrol station/camping supplies/fishing supplies and unofficial tour agency) we would have a snooze.

Not that this in itself is unusual but in this case not only had we driven the 400 or so Km's but we had also had an interesting, and I must agree with Jemma, informative stop at Hamelin Pool on the way, which had made it a full day.

For anyone out there who has driven this route it is about 27km's past the Overlander Road house, itself being an interesting place selling t shirt souvenirs or stubby holders (beer bottle coolers) with "I've been to the Overlander Roadhouse".To me this is like the interesting sales policy of marketing "Watford Gap - The place to be", merchandise.Let me know if you think it will catch on?

Anyway, just after leaving the North West Coastal Highway at the Overlander and about 100 or so km's from Denham is Hamelin Pool. It is essentially just an inlet from the sea that has been sealed off by a sand bar. What makes this one special is that it is one of only a few sites worldwide where you can view a colony (I think that's the right word) of Stromatolites. To the naked eye the Stromatolites are lumps of rock just below the surface but they are in-fact microbes that grow over thousands of years and helped the development of the planet by being one of the first things ever to produce oxygen. They are pretty much credited with allowing the start of more complex life on earth a few million years back. Not bad for something that has the appearance of a underwater rockery.

OK, I accept that it wasn't the most visually stimulating experience and I can't see Stromatolite viewing becoming a huge spectator sport, but it was good to see them and read their 'impressive' history. We wandered over the protective boardwalk (with supports dug right into the Stromatolites), looking at the cart tracks through these delicate organisms, from when the wool ships were loaded up in the late 1800's.We also looked at the shell block quarry (the small shells on the beach compacted over many years and formed a concrete like consistency which was used as building blocks), and learned a lot about the beginnings of human life. We left Hamelin Pool feeling a lot more knowledgeable that when we got there, but most of you reading this will not see that as a huge achievement!

That evening we explored (the one road), a little and watched sunset from the beach before watching locals and tourists catch squid of one of the jetties. Something that was new to both of us was the public fish cleaning area just on the foreshore. One of the main pastimes of, well, most people in Denham it would appear, is fishing. One thing leading to another and most of these people who enjoy fishing must therefore go through the ritual of cleaning the fish ready for taking them home for tea.The council here being a thoughtful lot have installed a fish cleaning area and this was being fully utilised by a few people cleaning off the days' catch of Snapper. This was being closely monitored by a group of very interested sea gulls.

The next day we planned to check emails and go to the museum. A nice easy day. Unfortunately the only 2 internet booths in the town were busy when we walked past them so we opted for the museum 1st and internet communication 2nd. $10 and 20 minutes later we are leaving the worst museum we have been to for some time (and we have been to a few really weird ones), and then finding that as it's Sunday the rest of the town (including the internet) had just closed.Luckily we cheered ourselves up with a nice cheese and onion omelette cooked by the light of the one ring camp stove, and planned our day to Monkey Mia in the morning.

Monkey Mia is not a town but a resort about 25km's further along the peninsula. The resort has crystal clear waters and great beaches, snorkelling etc. This in itself sounds amazing but, let's face it, most coastal resorts in WA have that to one extent or another. Monkey Mia does have something that nowhere else does though, with the daily visits and feeding of the wild dolphins. Everyday there are a group of dolphins that visit and they are usually watched by an equally large group of tourists.

We arrived for 7.45 am as per all the guide books after paying out $7 each to get in. We then proceeded to stand knee deep in the, surprisingly cold, sea waiting for the dolphins (along with about 100 other cold wet legged tourists). At about 8.15 and after constant reminders of 'they are wild dolphins they choose to visit when they like', a couple of dolphins did visit but didn't really look like they were that bothered by the defrosted fish on offer. I was just thinking back to the daily feeding of the pelicans at Kalbarri which happens every day apart from the day we go and only 1 turns up, when we noticed a small crowd of people over near the jetty. After some investigation and a little bit of patience we eventually made it to the front to see about 12 dolphins herding a school of fish up against the shore. There was obviously some order as they all took turns in diving in for breakfast while the others kept the fish well and truly surrounded. We watched this for as long as we could before letting someone else get a good view and by this time the dolphins that were allowed to take food from strangers (5 females only) had decided that it was time to eat. Just as I arrived back from watching the herding and hunting on one side I got picked out of the (now relatively small) crowd and got to feed a dolphin myself.

There is not a lot else to do in Monkey Mia after you have seen (& fed) the dolphins, so we, again unsuccessfully tried to check our emails & went for a coffee, where we bumped into the same girls we had met at the National Park in Kalbarri. We had a chat with them but they were driving up to Coral Bay that afternoon, so we agreed to look out for them in Coral Bay, relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours or so then went back to Denham and got ready for another few hours on the road.