I’ve gotten used to a morning sleep in these last couple of weeks so it was a bit of a shock to have to be up and at the Monkey Mia gates at 7:30am. We are about 20 minutes away by car also.
We arrived and paid the $16 entry fee, happy that the ranger offered a family ticket which meant Aaron got in as a kid! Even though he’s 20 years old, fortunately he has an adorable baby face and we have been able to pass him off as a 15-16 year old on a few occasions so far. Caleb and him just keep annoying each other in the back seat and it sets the scene beautifully.
We had to wait while the park ranger explained the process, what might happen and we were all pretty happy when she mentioned that there are only 4-5 days a year that no dolphins come in. We waited….and waited….and waited. Eventually it was suggested that we go and watch an interesting DVD on dolphins in the visitors centre while we wait.
There were about 80 people on the beach waiting and we were relieved to see someone start to point towards the water. A dolphin “Nicky” and her calf had come in. Only the ranger could feed Nicky as there is the danger of the calves beaching themselves and getting distressed. We were a little disappointed but that’s just the way it goes. It was a far cry from the reports of massive numbers of dolphins that you could get in the water with and feed. If you are heading this way, it’s good to be prepared that you may not get the full experience that others have. It’s no-one’s fault just the rhythm of nature. The entrance fee entitles you to come back the next day and you can also hang around for the lunch feeding which isn’t supposed to be as good (in dolphin numbers) as the early morning. We decided not to hang around and to go and explore the Francois Peron National Park nearby. We consoled ourselves with a coffee at the resort restaurant and headed off.
We needed to deflate the tyres in order to drive through the national park as the sand tracks were thick and soft. Some great 4WDing was coming up! Whoo Hoo!
We reached Big Lagoon after about 10kms. We had morning tea and Ray decided to bait up a hand line and try his luck. Even he admitted after 40 minutes that all he succeeded in doing was feeding the fish. I can’t understand how “fishermen” can continually bait up their hook, throw it in the water, get some nibbles, reel it in, bait up their hook, throw it in the water, get some nibbles, reel it in, bait up their hook, etc. etc. etc. At what point do they realise that this is not a winning formula and it might be an idea to try something else? Or is that supposed to be relaxing? I just don’t get it.
We spent the day touring through the national park only seeing a handful of other people. The sights are majestic and the water is truly gem coloured. Combined with the deep ochre of the sand it really is a sight to behold. We saw an artesian pool but we didn’t go in it and as we were driving along a Stop sign was posted along the track for no reason at all. There were no intersecting roads. We came to the conclusion that it must have been for the wildlife to obey to keep them safe from cars.We joked about it as we drove along. Then…
On our way back we were doing about 70km/ph on a very deep sandy track. All of a sudden we saw an emu standing by the side of the track. Ray had no brakes as it was too sandy so he had to keep driving and maintain the course. The emu decided to ( from a standing start) jump in front of the car and race us! We were chasing him for about 300 metres before he got smart and darted off into the bush. They are very fast! I’m not sure he would have been able to obey the Stop sign either!
We discussed the animals we had seen today in the wild: 2dolphins, 6 goannas, 1shark, 2 stingrays, 2 turtles and one very fast emu. Cool!