After a
couple of nights in Carnarvon to service Ota and restock and a very nice
woodfired pizza night at the Capricorn Caravan Park we headed into the Shark
Bay World Heritage Area.
First stop a
visit to Hamelin Pool to see the Stromatolites.
Living microbes build stomatolites in the very high saline water and are
similar to the earliest forms of life dating back 3000 million years.
Onto Shell
Beach which is made up of trillions of tiny cockle shells piled up to 10 metres
deep and 1 kilometre wide and extending 120 kilometres along the
coastline. These shells with the help of
fresh water over the years compact and they once quarried them for building
blocks. A number of the local buildings
are made from them. The ocean here is
twice as salty as normal sea water.
Eagle Bluff
is supposedly a great lookout to see an abundance of sea life in the shallow
clear water below. Unfortunately we
didn’t see a thing. We did however
nearly get blown into the water ourselves with the gusty cold winds.
As we had no
luck spotting the animals in the wild we entertained ourselves with a visit to
Ocean Park Aquarium to get up close with all the locals. A very informative and interesting time was
had.
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| A 3 flippered green turtle |
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| Lionfish |
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| A Cobia (fish), not a shark |
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| Shovel Nose Rays |
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| A Lemon and a Whaler Shark |
After a
couple of nights in Denham, the only town in Shark Bay we headed into Francois
Peron National Park via Peron Homestead, which provides an insight into how life
was when the park was an (unsuccessful) working sheep station, back in the 60's.
Francois
Peron National Park covers 52,000ha and is home to many threatened species
which they have reintroduced, like the bilby, woma python, mallee fowl and
other small birds and mammals.
Tyre
pressures reduced and we drove the hour of deep red sandy corrugated track and birrida’s
(gypsum claypans) to find a campsite.
A lovely
quiet spot just back from the beach which we had to ourselves the whole
time we were at South Gregories camp.
Most mornings we woke to watch dolphins feeding just offshore and
the boys caught fish for dinner everyday.
Whiting, flathead and bream. They
have also caught Snapper and Wrasse but not big enough to keep. Ash has now taught the boys to fillet their own catch. He can now send them on their way and get on with his own fishing!
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| Cool nights |
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| Cadell's Yellowfin Bream and Ash' tiddler |
There is a
high prevalence of sharks and stone fish (camouflaged and highly venomous) here
so swimming and snorkelling is not so appealing and the weather is not nearly
so warm with a cool breeze most days.
Great for walking and reading though and of course fishing. Spent a very relaxing birthday picnicking at
Bottle Bay.
Visited Cape
Peron and walked the 1.5 kilometres to Skipjack Point, another lookout with outstanding
views but very little of the promised sealife to observe below. Although we did see the cutest little Thorny
Devil, we gently patted him and to our surprise he was not at all thorny but
soft. Good disguise.
After a
couple more days of fishing and relaxing we headed to Tamala Station for a
couple of nights. We really could get used to all this camping
right on the beach. From here we did a
day trip into Steep Point, the most westerly point of mainland Australia. Another corrugated sandy 100 kilometres or so
but so worth it, the waters are such a deep turquoise colour and very warm as
it is so close to the Leeuwin Current (a warm ocean current that flows
southwards down the west coast). Steep
Point is renowned for the best land based game fishing in the country being so
close to the Continental Shelf. The
fishermen clip themselves to hooks mounted in the sides of the cliffs so they
don’t get washed away.
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| We saved this little guy off the road |
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| Tamala Station |
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| Nor 6 |
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| Shelter Bay |
We had a swim in the beautiful warm water of Shelter Bay. And then watched a 3 metre tiger shark cruise up the beach only metres from shore. Phew!!
After a
wonderful day, we were nearly back at camp when we were privileged to watch one
of nature’s rare sights. A male Bustard
doing a mating dance for four females.
We had seen this male earlier in the day and thought he was pretty
impressive but to see him all fluffed up calling out his throaty roar (not unlike a quiet lion) was
something to behold. They are a shy bird,
not often seen and not dissimilar to an emu but they can fly, growing to
1.5m. They are happy to be approached by
a car but not by people on foot. We had
one of the females almost walk right up to the car.
Unfortunately
for us we now have to point Ota for home and make our trek eastwards and southwards back to chilly Victoria.
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