Our first stopover after the Swan Valley was at Greenough about 10km south of Geraldton where beach walks and sand dunes, a Deltones Concert, a search for 4 wheel drive gear and time at the HMAS Sydney Memorial was the order of the few days.
Then on to Kalbarri where we copped another day of rain - no leaks this time thankfully so I think we've fixed our leak! We'd planned a canoe trip down the Murchison this day but were able to put it off til the following day. As it was, the four wheel drive bus trip out to our start point was interesting enough because the rain had made parts of the sandy track very boggy.
The canoe trip was very pleasant, we had to paddle up stream for about 20 minutes before turning around and paddling down stream for about 45 minutes to our breakfast stop, the whole area was a bog with mud sticking to everything, but brekky was great. Then another paddle for about an hour to where we packed the canoes back on the trailers and headed back to town.
We managed a visit to Natures Window and a few other lookouts further up the gorge and a visit to Finlays Fish BBQ ( a must if visiting Kalbarri and if you are a member of the “Australasian Order of old Bastards” make sure you have your card with you).
From Kalbarri we headed to Monkey Mia, being school holidays we had to stay in Denham, about 28km from MM. We then had 5 enjoyable days working with the dolphins It meant early starts as we had to be there by 7.30am and usually finished about 12.30pm. As soon as arriving it was get the fish ready for the first feed and be in the water with the dolphins about 8am which was usually followed by the second feed before 9am and a third later on (whenever the dolphins decided to come to shore).
You could have up to 200 people at the first feed and thankfully less at the next feeds. Judy looked after Piccolo one of the younger dolphins, while I was looking after Nicky. We don’t actually get to feed them ourselves, just pick out the lucky 'tourists' standing on the shore, but it is still a great feeling being in the water with the dolphins swimming around your legs.
Once the feeds were done it was cleaning, sweeping and rubbish collecting as well as watching out for any other dolphin visits that filled in our mornings. Judy even got to dress up in the Bilby costume for a ranger talk with the kids.
We got to know a couple of young English tourists (both police officers) while there and they joined us for a couple of four wheel drive trips so we could put into practice what we’d learnt at our course.
We did a 80km return trip on a sandy corrugated track into Cape Peron with little side trips to Gregorys Beach, Skipjack Point where we watched huge stringrays and turtles swimming around at the base of the cliff, and Bootleg Bay. The huge red cliffs that merged into the white sands on the beach were amazing and very picturesque.
Our second trip was a bit longer into Steep Point, the most westerly point in Australia and took us a whole day. This track was a bit harder with a couple of big sand dunes in the way but we did not have any problems. Did a slight detour to a beach with some of the biggest surf I have seen for a long time crashing onto the beach and then about 5kms away some of the tallest cliffs with rock platforms with lots of blow holes at the bottom. With the big seas that were rolling in it was spectacular watching nature at work.
It was a bit sad to leave the dolphins, we could happily have worked with them for longer but it was time to move on.
Carnarvon was our next stop for the last couple of days to catch up on our washing and clean the car, after our off road trips, before heading tomorrow to one of our favourite spots from last time, Coral Bay. Coral Bay is the south end of the Ningaloo Reef and we have a waterfront site booked for a week. It will take us a couple of hours drive to arrive there tomorrow from Carnarvon.
As we travel further north the temperatures are rising. Its been in the 30’s the last few days, getting down to 20 overnight. Also humid. Perfect weather for swimming and snorkelling at Coral Bay and Exmouth.
Muzz
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