Dolphins, Dugongs and other such things
When last I dragged my lazy arse in front of a keyboard, the story was last September and my adventures out of Denham. It ended as I hopped over the Peron peninsula for a night in Monkey Mia. Note that that's pronounced "my-a" not "mee-a" - the latter seems more reasonable, but the locals laugh at you unfailingly if you use it.
Anyways, Monkey Mia has become something of a "must do" on the WA backpacker scene, as the local dolphins swim right close into shore (ie in as far as thigh-depth) on a daily basis to gawp at the tourists and get fed some fish. The tourists, unsurprisingly, gawp back, a well as taking umpteen dozen photos of the cheeky cetaceans. It's about as close as you can get to a dolphin without actually being out there swimming with one. I would experience this the following morning, prior to my departure from the resort (for that's all Monkey Mia itself is, a resort - hence why I had spent much of my time in Denham, the actual township of the area), but my focus the day of my arrival was elsewhere: on a catamaran.
Yes, I was going to indulge my love of sailing, and head out to see one of the other varieties of critter for which Shark Bay is famous: the Dugong. Also known as the "sea-cow" and related to the Caribbean's Manatee, the Dugong is a large, herbivorous sea mammal which feeds on sea grass. Due to its dependence on one food source and slow breeding pattern, it's now getting ever more endangered, and this was my first chance to ever see one. I was going out on the Shotover, an ex-ocean-racing catamaran (yes, I am obsessed with racing boats) which was spending its retirement in WA, helping the biologists there study the ecology of these creatures (and making some money on the side from taking tourists out to see them).
And it was a beautiful day - clear blue skies, golden sunshine, turquoise waters, and a whole heap of sightings of dugongs, aided by the polarising sunglasses the crew lent us. I took quite a few pictures although, without a polarising lens for the camera, most of them turned out looking just like brown blobs on the surface of the water - I know what they are, though! On top of this wildlife-spotting trip, I also did a sunset sailing trip on the same boat, which was more about the performance of the boat and less about spotting anything. Oh, and of course it gave me the chance to indulge my passion for ridiculous quantities of sunset photos.
After all of that sea-borne excitement, and the antics of the rest of my time in Shark Bay, I made myself some pasta, had a couple of beers at the bar and then called it an early night. I had to be up bright and early the next day to get down and see the dolphins come in, as well as checking out of my dorm and meeting up with the Easyrider when it arrived. Yes, having stood in the water while dolphins swam a foot or so away from me, and then marvelled once again at just how big a pelican's beak is, it was time to load back onto the Yellow Bus and head off up the coast.
This would be where the loss of my notes again comes back to haunt me, as I can scarcely remember anyone from that bus trip, or even the driver. The trip itself was largely uneventful, being composed of the usual long, mildly dull stretches along Aussie highways with nothing much to look at. My MP3 player got a fair workout again, as I was perched up chatting with the driver, and the trip only started getting memorable once we passed Carnarvon and popped into a bottle-shop. Alcohol on public transport vehicles (including tour vehicles) is strictly prohibited in Australia, but one of the factors in WA is the sheer distance - if you know the nearest police point is at least 4 hours' drive away, it can tend to embolden you. So we had a few cold beers on the final drive down towards our night's stop at Coral Bay, where we stopped down by the beach on arrival to settle in for the sunset over the Indian Ocean.
Once that was out of the way, we got ourselves booked into our accommodation, the Ningaloo Club backpackers. This is actually quite a nice setup, and much larger than would seem to be necessary for a village the size of Coral Bay (honestly, it's tiny - it's scarcely even a one-horse town on its own, unless that horse was a Shetland Pony). The secret there is that Coral Bay has turned into another of those "must do" places for backpackers on the West Coast, due to its snorkelling and diving opportunities, and other options such as quad-biking, plus the fact that even in winter it's usually pretty warm, so many backpackers start topping up their tan there...
In any case, I was hopping off the bus again there for a few days, so that seems a logical point to stop the narrative again. Until next time, fare thee well...
Anyways, Monkey Mia has become something of a "must do" on the WA backpacker scene, as the local dolphins swim right close into shore (ie in as far as thigh-depth) on a daily basis to gawp at the tourists and get fed some fish. The tourists, unsurprisingly, gawp back, a well as taking umpteen dozen photos of the cheeky cetaceans. It's about as close as you can get to a dolphin without actually being out there swimming with one. I would experience this the following morning, prior to my departure from the resort (for that's all Monkey Mia itself is, a resort - hence why I had spent much of my time in Denham, the actual township of the area), but my focus the day of my arrival was elsewhere: on a catamaran.
Yes, I was going to indulge my love of sailing, and head out to see one of the other varieties of critter for which Shark Bay is famous: the Dugong. Also known as the "sea-cow" and related to the Caribbean's Manatee, the Dugong is a large, herbivorous sea mammal which feeds on sea grass. Due to its dependence on one food source and slow breeding pattern, it's now getting ever more endangered, and this was my first chance to ever see one. I was going out on the Shotover, an ex-ocean-racing catamaran (yes, I am obsessed with racing boats) which was spending its retirement in WA, helping the biologists there study the ecology of these creatures (and making some money on the side from taking tourists out to see them).
And it was a beautiful day - clear blue skies, golden sunshine, turquoise waters, and a whole heap of sightings of dugongs, aided by the polarising sunglasses the crew lent us. I took quite a few pictures although, without a polarising lens for the camera, most of them turned out looking just like brown blobs on the surface of the water - I know what they are, though! On top of this wildlife-spotting trip, I also did a sunset sailing trip on the same boat, which was more about the performance of the boat and less about spotting anything. Oh, and of course it gave me the chance to indulge my passion for ridiculous quantities of sunset photos.
After all of that sea-borne excitement, and the antics of the rest of my time in Shark Bay, I made myself some pasta, had a couple of beers at the bar and then called it an early night. I had to be up bright and early the next day to get down and see the dolphins come in, as well as checking out of my dorm and meeting up with the Easyrider when it arrived. Yes, having stood in the water while dolphins swam a foot or so away from me, and then marvelled once again at just how big a pelican's beak is, it was time to load back onto the Yellow Bus and head off up the coast.
This would be where the loss of my notes again comes back to haunt me, as I can scarcely remember anyone from that bus trip, or even the driver. The trip itself was largely uneventful, being composed of the usual long, mildly dull stretches along Aussie highways with nothing much to look at. My MP3 player got a fair workout again, as I was perched up chatting with the driver, and the trip only started getting memorable once we passed Carnarvon and popped into a bottle-shop. Alcohol on public transport vehicles (including tour vehicles) is strictly prohibited in Australia, but one of the factors in WA is the sheer distance - if you know the nearest police point is at least 4 hours' drive away, it can tend to embolden you. So we had a few cold beers on the final drive down towards our night's stop at Coral Bay, where we stopped down by the beach on arrival to settle in for the sunset over the Indian Ocean.
Once that was out of the way, we got ourselves booked into our accommodation, the Ningaloo Club backpackers. This is actually quite a nice setup, and much larger than would seem to be necessary for a village the size of Coral Bay (honestly, it's tiny - it's scarcely even a one-horse town on its own, unless that horse was a Shetland Pony). The secret there is that Coral Bay has turned into another of those "must do" places for backpackers on the West Coast, due to its snorkelling and diving opportunities, and other options such as quad-biking, plus the fact that even in winter it's usually pretty warm, so many backpackers start topping up their tan there...
In any case, I was hopping off the bus again there for a few days, so that seems a logical point to stop the narrative again. Until next time, fare thee well...
posted by Pat at 12:38 am
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