We were getting close to our most northerly destination, Monkey Mia in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area.
There were many wildflowers but only one road house between Kalbarri and Monkey Mia and there were 3 tour buses all pulled in for lunch. We had a super driver who pulled up close to the door so we could hop out and get inside before the others made it from the car park. So we got served first and got a table. Full marks to APTour Co.
The red arrow shows where the Dutch Captain Dirk Hartog made the first recorded landing on Australia back in 1616. He nailed a pewter plate to a post with a carved message. The plate was discovered by another dutchman Captain Vlamingh who took it back to Holland where it is today in the Rijkes Museum. Vlamingh left a plate of his own, which is in the Fremantle Maritime Museum. The yellow arrow is the town of Denham and the blue arrow is the town of Monkey Mia.
Denham is a gorgeous, sleepy little fishing and holiday town and so untouched by development. However they have an ultra modern new Shark Bay Discovery and Visitors Centre, where we had a guided tour and learnt all about why Shark Bay is one of the most important World Heritage sites.
Shark Bay qualifies to be a world heritage centre in all four categories: Evolutionary History, Natural Beauty, Threatened Species and Geological and Biological processes. After our lesson and another look at the natural beauty of the bay we were on the bus again heading for Monkey Mia.
On the way the bus turned off the main road and took us to Eagle Bluff Lookout, where we could see the amazing colours of the sea and.....
many sharks swimming close to the shore. You can see just two of them here. It is obvious why this place is called Shark Bay.
Finally we arrived at our destination. We were not disappointed it is a beautiful place and this was the view from our cabin.
It was evening and we were tired from the long day but we couldn't resist a walk along the beach.
It was certainly a romantic spot as these two show, arm in arm gazing over the bay.
Then it was back to the restaurant with a fabulous view for dinner. I was looking forward to the morning when the wild dolphins would swim into the shore to interact with humans.
