SHELL SHOCK

 After two glorious days in Monkey Mia it was time for the tour bus to turn around and head south back to Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

We got up. finished packing and headed to the restaurant for breakfast. The Bay was beautiful and it was hard to see where the sea and sky met because they were the same colour.  The boat in the distance looked just like it was sailing into the sky.

 Then back to our cabin and one last look at the magic view and we were off to catch the bus.

First stop was Shell Beach, where the green arrow is pointing.

 Now I have seen some shell beaches before but this one was amazing. As far as you can see is shells. There are some loose ones but most are stuck together by natures cement.

 I'm photographing the loose ones in the depression but I am kneeling on the ones cemented together by a natural chemical that comes from the sea. In some places it is 10m deep.

 This stuff is called Hamelin coquina and for years it was used as a light weight building material. Hamelin Pool is the name of the place where it is found. 

 This post card shows how they cut bricks from the coquina. Now that it is a world heritage area people can no longer use the shells for bricks unless it is to restore historic buildings.

 We had morning tea in a cafe built from shell bricks.

 The shell beach was beautiful and quite isolated except for the two people way down there. Can you see two black dots? Hee hee I zoomed in and discovered that........

......they were skinny dipping grey nomads who thought they were on their own until our bus load of tourists came to annoy them with our telephoto lenses. I do feel guilty by not respecting their privacy but ..............its funny.

DELIGHTFUL DOLPHINS

For many years I have wanted to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia in W.A. and I was looking forward to this moment very much.  The morning after we arrived at Monkey Mia we were told to be on the beach at 7:30 and we should see the dolphins come in to be fed. I arrived early and the rangers told us we had to sit on the boardwalk and wait until we saw them and then walk very slowly to the edge of the water so as not to frighten them. The rangers have strict rules now on the amount of contact allowed and for how long. This has not always been the case.

Forty years ago a fisherman and his wife started feeding the dolphins when returning with their catch. As the news spread many tourists started arriving. They would feed and pat the dolphins and swim with them but when the area became a marine park and a dolphin research location it was discovered that the dolphins were dying. Investigations found that because the mother dolphins were coming into the shallow water to be fed and stayed there for a long time the babies could not get under their mothers to suckle. It was also found that dolphins could catch human viruses and die.

So rules were made. No one is to touch the dolphins or swim with them. Feeding time is limited to 30 minutes and only the same five dolphins are fed. The rangers choose a few people from the crowd to feed the dolphins. Although I realised I probably wouldn't be feeding a dolphin I wasn't upset as I could take photos instead and I agreed with the rules so as to save these beautiful animals from getting sick. 

 We waited for what seemed ages for them to arrive. The rangers warned us that they may decide not to come today. That got me worried until she said they have only done that twice in the past. There were about 100 people gathered on the beach on a signal from the rangers we moved to the water's edge.

 At first there were only a couple and then more and more turned up. It was a big pod.

They swam back and forth and closer and closer. It was so exciting.

Then five of them left the pod and came in even closer when they saw the rangers with the buckets of fish.

 There were two rangers. They talked to the dolphins and had names for them. They told us how to tell their age by the number of speckly dots on their tummies.

 It was low tide and the water was a bit murky and hard for them to get in close. This one came to say hello and pose for me.

 This lucky guy was chosen to feed one.

It was lovely to see children interacting with the dolphins. Notice in the background the rest of the pod were frolicking, romancing and chasing fish. It was a great experience and all over too quickly but they come back at lunchtime and in the evenings.

 After lunch I went on a catamaran cruise to view dugongs these are big marine mammals similar to manatee and sometimes called a sea cow. They eat sea grass and are vulnerable to extinction. (I am second from left with pink shirt and blue hat)

Off we go. Photo by Bill who stayed on terra firma.

The wind got up and it was quite cold. Everyone had their eyes peeled looking for dugongs and turtles.

But all we saw was beautiful clear green water but not a dugong in sight. Anyway the cruise was fun.

So no whales in Albany and no dugongs here. That's wildlife for you. At least the dolphins came in.

SHARK BAY W.A.

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.

GORGES AND GORGEOUS WILDFLOWERS

On this day of our tour we realised why it was called "Western Wildflower Wonderland Tour". We left Kalbarri and headed north towards Shark Bay and Monkey Mia in Western Australia.

 The road travelled through scrubby, desert like country.

 Every now and then the driver pulled over for us to walk through the scrubland and discover a multitude of flowers. There was the occasional small tree but when you looked closely at the undergrowth it was a mass of different coloured and shaped wildflowers. Just a few are below.

There were too many to include all of them here.

 After driving for miles through flat desert like country we suddenly came upon a gorge at  Hawks Head where the Murchison River  hidden from view winds its way through the gorge to the sea.

It was like a blip in the flat countryside.

 At the lookout I noticed this tree with interesting red flowers. As I walked closer I saw that the flowers sprouted straight out of the branches without a stem. They were strange but beautiful.  I have no idea what they are called. I was so involved with the wonder of them that I nearly missed the bus boarding deadline.

On the way to Shark Bay the driver pulled over again, where the ground was covered for as far as you could see with these pretty purple flowers interspersed with many other varieties too. 

It truly was a wildflower wonderland.

Next stop The world heritage Shark Bay.

BLOOMS AND BEACHES

Our Western Wildflower Wonderland tour continued north from New Norcia to Kalbarri in Western Australia. On the way we stopped at a flower farm in Coomberdale. They have acres of land and a big factory for drying the flowers. 

 We had a tour through the factory where a multitude of colourful flowers were hanging from the roof. There were also buckets of them on the ground. They have a huge export business. After browsing through their beautiful gift shop we continued on our way to Kalbarri. We stayed in a very comfortable motel with a great restaurant.

 The next morning I went for a walk and saw these delightful flowers.

     

 I also strolled to the river before returning for breakfast.

Then it was on the bus for a short ride to the beach. 

 The thing I loved about these Western Australian beaches is that they are not built up and still in their natural state. The East Coast beaches were like this 60 years ago but not now. They are cluttered with high rise apartment blocks.

Soon it was all aboard for Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, famous for wild dolphins coming in to shore to be fed by hand.

BABY NEWS

Last August Bernie and Sonya (our daughter) came back to Australia from USA for Bernie to host another series of 'Beauty and the Geek Australia,' for Channel Seven. While they were here they told us that they were expecting our second grandchild. Everyone was happy even though they thought it would have taken longer to conceive and given them another year before coping with number two. 

 Naturally, we are very proud.

 The news was printed in the celebrity magazine "OK."  

Proud parents and grandparents. The baby is due next April and they don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet. So it looks like we will have an American grandchild. We are fast becoming a united nations family. Swiss grandfather, English grandmother, Australian parents, brother and aunt.