Its a long and tedious drive from Kalbarri to Shark Bay... and we didnt see any sharks!!! We drove up the highway on endless straight roads... each crest with possibilities of a change of scenary but never actually producing it... low bush and massive termite mounds as far as the eye could see.... and that was a long way across the totally flat landscape... for a short time it got almost exciting as very clear and quite big ridges appeared... some form of ancient geological formation that ran kind of parallel with the road- but they did last long and it was back to a hypnotic monotemos trundle along.
I will say at this point the van we hired is basic.. budget and a bit of a workhorse... it deliveres exactly what we need (except for the microwave... we have never used it) buts slow and noisy and the air con could be better...
But..so far we have got where we needed to be... and once in the World Heritage site of Shark Bay we pull up to have lunch and take a much needed wander to look at Hamelin Pool and the marine Stromatolites... this is one of only two places in the world where these formations made by the result of the earliest forms of life on Earth.
It was disappointing due to cyclone whixh had passed throuh the area 2 years ago the boadwalk was down and visitors were not allowed on or near the viewing platform... bit of a bad show really - World Heritage and 2 years on... anyway we moved on up to Denham - the main seaside resort in Shark Bay where we were reunited with the Castlemaine crew and we had a great catching up over a bottle of gin...
Denham offered little other than beautiful greeny blue seas and extremly windy weather - a reminder of another cyclone which was raging a bit further north of us... we were just picking up the very edge... the van swayed all night disconcerting but we were well tucked in a nook and neednt worry.
The next morning us girls got up really early and using the nice Castlemaine cruise mobile we went up Monkey Mia to look at the dolphins being fed... alongside a 100 other people... but we felt we we needed to do something to justify an almost 300 mile detour to look at the world heritage sparse offerings...
There was a nice discovery centre with a fab selection of skulls, bones, shells that had been found on the shoreline. It was well labelled and lots of interesting info available.
The dolphins come to be fed everyday - its a strictly monitered programme and designed to stop tourist interfering too much with nature and spoiling dolphin life... but on this dull dark grey day (cyclone residue) they werent playing out ... it took them ages to come in.. here we are in WA shivering on the beach waiting for uncooperative dolphins to perform...
Of course when they did come they were beautiful and the 'feeding' was quite low key so not a display as I had feared and it was quite pleasant. Also there were shells on the beach so at last some beach treasure... i picked up a stunning swirly affair shell and was holding it when suddenly i felt a sharp stinging sensation and it had 'bit' me... it had the desired effect - I immediatly dropped it!! Sore finger but no real harm done.
We still had a big drive to get to exmouth and we didnt want to do it all in one day so we left after lunch and went look at Shell Beach... the whole beach is just made up of mainly tiny shells - actually quite pretty - especially the clean white beach against a cloudless blue sky.
We drove on ... more monotomos endless staight roads... low bush... flat land and termites... stopping to replenish supplies at Carnarvon - no castle - and an overnight stop in a rest area with little light, a late rising moon so therefore amazing stars...
Only another few k's to our final most northern destination!
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