Monkey Mia

10/06/2011
Another chill out day, though we did have to pack the van away to drive to the other end of town for essential supplies. A morning shopping is not our idea of fun but it has to be done as we are moving on tomorrow, and we are never quite sure what will be available when we are going somewhere unknown.

11/06/2011
We arrived here at the resort of Monkey Mia in the World Heritage Area of Shark Bay, after a 5 hour journey and a distance of 400K’s. We stopped a couple of times, once for a ropey coffee at the Billabong Roadhouse then for lunch with the flies about 120K’s out of Monkey Mia. Once into the complex, we decided it was fabulous. We did stay here in 2003, but apart from the interaction with dolphins here ( more later) we can’t remember too much about the place. Monkey Mia is on the mainland side of the Peron peninsula , the peninsula being up the middle of Shark Bay Marine park, which in turn is protected on the seaward side by the Dirk Hartog Island. All in all, very cosy, meaning no wind!! We could be here for some time.

12/06/2011
Spoke too soon about the wind, It freshened in the night and rattled the awning. We were up at the crack of dawn anyway to go down to the beach and interact with the local dolphins. Interact is a posh word for taking photos of wild dolphins being fed fish!! That’s not altogether true, these dolphins hav been coming to this beach for a good number of years, and in the past it was common practice for anyone to collect a bucket of fish and feed them to the dolphins. This all stopped in the mid 90’s when it was discovered that the mummy dolphins weren’t teaching their baby dolphins how to hunt, just turn up at the Monkey Mia snack bar, trouble was, mummy ate all the fish, and the baby died!! Since then there has been a policy of controlled feeding, only certain dolphins get a fish which is only a small percentage of their 12 kilo/day intake. After these morning feeds, they then return to deep waters to hunt. Us as spectators are given the chance, by random selection, to feed a dolphin. Jane got lucky and was selected. Photo eventually.
The whole thing is a wonderful experience as this is not a manufactured performance from these animals, they are wild and live in the wild. We reckon there were 13 or 14 dolphins turned up with just 5 being fed and it was marvellous watching their antics, as they each tried for the fish.
I just wish my camera skills were better, though there will be other chances as we are staying here for a couple more nights.
We tried to access our emails in the camp coin in the slot internet machine, might as well have thrown our dollar into the sea!! Communications here in Oz have not improved and we are looking to buy a gismo to improve our comms. We really need a travelling Kim!!