Shark Bay

We just love Shark Bay – the colours, the beaches, the wildlife are absolutely stunning. From the rich red of the spectacular cliffs at Cape Peron in the north, to the brilliant white of Shell Beach in the south, this peninsular contains some of the best beaches and headlands we have seen – and in such abundance. Hamlin Pool provides an amazing environment unique in the world with its living Stromatolites. And then there is Monkey Mia with its delightful dolphins. We could have spent a lot more time in Shark Bay.

We stayed at Shark Bay (Denham) between 1 – 4 Sept 2018

Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia

Getting There

Carnarvon > Denham ~ 326kms

History

Shark Bay is the traditional country of three First Nations language groups: Malgana, Nhanda and Yingkarta. The Malgana name for Shark Bay is Gutharraguda, which means ‘two bays’ or ‘two waters’.

There are about 130 registered Indigenous heritage sites in the Shark Bay area including quarries, rock shelters, burial sites and large scatters of discarded shells, bone and other food-related artefacts known as middens. Archaeological sites around Shark Bay tend to be close to the shoreline. Edel Land was a particularly important place for early First Nations people with a stone quarry at Crayfish Bay, fresh water at Willyah Mia on Heirisson Prong, and numerous middens and camp sites. There is also a burial site at Heirisson Prong.

Peron Peninsula was also important with middens found at many locations including Cape Peron, Cape Rose, Goulet Bluff and Eagle Bluff. Camp sites, water wells, fish traps and grinding grooves are also scattered across the peninsula. Excavation of a cave at Monkey Mia revealed the remains of molluscs, cuttlefish, crabs, dugongs, turtles and fish. Stone for spears and tools was quarried on the western coast of Shark Bay at Crayfish Bay, and on the eastern coast at Yaringa near Gladstone.

We were very surprised to discover that the Denham area had a long history of European sailors landing here – it was the first part of the Australian mainland discovered by European sailors. In 1616, Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog made landfall at an island now called Dirk Hartog Island, off the coast of Shark Bay. In 1697 the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island. He found remnant of Hartog’s landing (after more than 80 years!) and took these back to Amsterdam where they are in a museum.

Later explorers included William Dampier in 1699, who named Shark Bay. In 1772, Frenchman Louis Francois de Saint Alouarn landed on the Island and formally took possession of its west coast in the name of France. But the French never followed this up – wouldn’t life in Australia been much different if France had followed through. In 1801 and 1803 the French Bauden and Hamelin expedition landed in Shark Bay and named many of its features. In 1818, Frenchmen Louise de Freycinet visited the same area and found remnants of the Dutch visits, which somehow survived the sinking of this ship. Then in 1858, the British arrived – Henry Denham in the HMAS Herald acting for the Admiralty.

The coast remained uninhabited by Europeans until the middle of the 19th century. The first pearls found in Western Australia were discovered in Shark Bay in 1854 by a Lieutenant Helpman, who found the dense beds of pearl-shell oysters that are abundant there. The earlier name was “Freshwater Camp” when it was a pearling camp.

Today, the areas is all about tourism. From April until September, there is an influx of over 250,000 people passing through main North West Coastal Highway, of which approximately 110,000 come into Denham and Monkey Mia.

Day 1 – 1 Sept – drive to Denham

The drive down was, for the first half, pretty monotonous – flat and straight roads with treeless lands covered in low bushes and grasses. But we did see some lovely wildflowers. People are saying the winter rains have made this one of the best years in a decade.

Approaching White Bluff Lookout, some high ridges started to appear. At the Bluff, there is a signpost up to the photographic spot – the track up is a narrow single lane sealed surface – you need to make sure there are no vans starting to come down before you go up. At the top is a vast flat area with views off in all directions. There are hills in most directions and a lagoon right in front of us. There are also a couple of “cairns” comprising all manner of memorial artefacts. Some were formal cast iron plaques. Most were just rocks that had been written or painted on. One of the “cairns” comprised various gnomes, dolls and other figures.

There were lots more wildflowers on the Hwy down to the Overlander Roadhouse, where we turned onto Shark Bay Rd. This is a good bitumen road and not far along it we come to a signpost to Hamelin Pool and the Stromatolites.

We assumed that there would be enough room to turn Mobi around, and headed in the 5km to the Pool, on a good bitumen road. We actually came to a van park, but there was a sign to the stromatolites to the left – a dirt road for which the first 20m was potholed and very rough. But it was OK after that. Parking was a bit tight – lots of vans whereas the parking looked to have been designed for cars. We then walked out to the viewing platform.

Stromatolites are termed ‘living fossils’, monuments to life on Earth over 3500 million years ago. Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is one of only a few places in the world where they exist. Found by accident in 1956 by an oil company, the 202,000Ha private reserve created by Bush Heritage Australia, will ensure protection of the Hamelin Pool, which contains the most diverse range of stromatolites and microbial diversity in the world. The Reserve is a protected marine nature reserve located in the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Shark Bay.

Stromatolites – Greek for ‘layered rock’ – are microbial reefs created by cyanobacteria (formerly known as blue-green algae). The microbes are active on the surface layer of the Stromatolites, while the underlying build-up is a lithified remnant of former microbial surface communities. These could be interpreted as a trace-fossil.

The cyanobacteria live in communities on the sea bed at densities of 3 billion individuals per square metre. They are the simplest life forms to use photosynthesis to provide food and oxygen. They provided the early Earth with most of its oxygen billions of years before plants appeared. Very fine particles of solids i.e. sand, crushed shell etc. are trapped by the sticky bacteria, to become cemented with calcium carbonate produced by the bacteria, thereby building up the stromatolite structures. Some structures are pillars up to 1.5 metres high and have taken thousands of years to grow. In the Marble Bar area of Western Australia there are fossil stromatolites approximately 50 metres high and 30 metres diameter, which are estimated to be over three billion years old. Typical growth is about 0.5 millimetres per year.

Hamelin Pool is unique in that it is hypersaline – having double the salinity of normal seawater. This provides an ideal environment for the stromatolites to grow, whilst also inhibiting other marine life which would normally feed on the bacteria.

At the Pool there is an interpretive boardwalk for people to venture out and examine the stromatolite structures. This is the only access area for the general public because of the fragile nature of this environment. The information panels are a bit difficult to grasp – but then I find this whole story just incredible – to be talking about such micro life organisms that have been living this way long before epaulet life developed. This really is such a unique place. We walked around the platform looking at these things that have been growing there for so many thousands of years. We had seen some examples of stromatolite fossils near Kununurra, in the Keep River NP, but there were only a few and difficult to make out.

After that we pushed on to Denham. The landscape is rolling coastal bush with the (at times the dead-straight road) cutting a grey strip with red shoulders through the green. Then we saw 2 emu’s on the road.

We also see a number of birridas (salt flats). Throughout the area, there are a number of flat, low-lying areas that are gypsum clay pans that used to be saline lakes. You must not leave the designated tracks across these, as the hard crust can hide some very sticky mud. Also, driving on the birridas will cause significant environmental damage which could take decades to repair.

There are massive examples in the north of the National Park. With changing sea levels, some of these birridas have become flooded by the sea to form beautiful lagoons. In the Francois Peron national park there are 2 such lagoons, the Little Lagoon and the Big Lagoon (top marks for originality in naming these waterways).

Just north of Goulet Bluff there is lookout over a gorgeous unnamed beach. This is our first look at a Shark Bay beach and were mightily impressed. The range of colour are amazing.

Approaching Denham, we entered the street name for the van park into our not so great sat nav, and as we entered the town it took us on a 5km diversion right around the town to get back to within a km of where we started. Oh, what a feeling.

The van park looks good and has multiple levels – we had paid a few dollars extra to get up on the top level in the front row, with terrific views to the sea. The facilities are very clean and modern, except the ablutions are shower/toilet rooms, which I reckon are a very inefficient way to go. A man came up to guide us in to the site, and Kerry took the wheel for the experience. I think he thought I had never backed the van in before, but we had it done in no time at all.

After setting up, we realised our lovely view came at a cost – a howling sea wind. So we could not put the awning up or even sit outside – very unpleasant. Kerry retired to bed for a little snooze none too pleased with our predicament. After a while I went down to the office and asked if there was a more sheltered spot. They gave me a couple of site numbers and I had a look around. One was quite spacious but on a corner, so very wide at the back but not so wide at the front – but it was sheltered by some trees and 2 vans up-wind of us. I went back and did the dangerous thing – woke Kerry. She agreed it would be better there and then went down to organise, and pay for an extra night’s stay, while I went back to start packing. At least I could just dump things anywhere as we were only going 100m. We reversed in quite well without assistance and were soon set up again, with the awning and the private screen out. After moving Mobi twice in one day we did little else that day. What a relief it was to be out of the direct wind.

Day 2 – 2 Sept – Southern part of the Peninsular

We had been thinking of driving up to the Francois Peron NP (Wulyibidi), but the roads got really bad reviews. I actually rang a 4WD tour company to enquire about the 1 day tour, but he was fully booked. He advised us to go to the Tourist Office which was open at 9am. As it was Sunday, we were surprised to hear that, but went there at 9 as we had planned to drive back down to the southern part of the Peninsula and explore. We were not surprised to see that the Office opened at 10:00. So we walked around town for a while. It is a nice town with a really good waterfront looking out over the ocean. Lots of memorabilia and information panels. We have a really good feel about this place.

We saw the unique cockle shell blocks of the Old Pearler Restaurant – a fascinating story – we were heading to Shell Beach after the Tourist Office.

We also refuelled in town – only $1.55/L. We took 111.16L for an average of 20.14L/100km – not bad since nearly all of that was towing over 552km.

We were first in the door of the Tourist Office and very quickly the lady there talked us into driving up to Cape Peron. The roads are very sandy, which can be quite soft in a couple pf places, but nothing The Cruiser couldn’t handle. We did not tell her it was not The Cruiser we were worried about. We had not driven serious sand so far. All vehicles have to deflate their tyres to 20 psi or less and there is an air pump site at the start of the road. She assured us that towards the top of the cape the road were all good except the one to Herald Bight – skip that one, she said. So we agreed we should go there the next day.

We decided to drive straight to Shell Beach and then work our way back up north again, stopping at all the side detours. Shell Beach is about 45km to the south and we only stopped for a few photos on the way down. The parking area is very close to the road and there was room there to turn a caravan. The interpretative panels on the walk out to the beach are pretty good.

Shell Beach, a very long beach, is covered with small white cockle shells, to a depth of some seven to ten metres. The effect is brilliant – a long, snow-white beach bordered by aqua blue ocean waters. Magical spot.

The hypersalinated waters of L’Haridon Bight in Shark Bay (twice the salinity of sea water) are home to billions of tiny coquina bivalves. These Cockles are tolerant of high salinity, while many species are not – so its predators do not cope well in this environment. This has resulted in the accumulation of billions of these tiny shells along the shore. The shell fish have existed in huge numbers for many thousands of years, then died natural deaths before the shells were washed ashore. As the tide goes out, these tiny shells open up and “sunbake” – we can see thousands of them all semi-open in the same position.

Older, deeper layers have been compacted and cemented into a limestone called coquina, a very hard limestone-like substance. In days gone by, the mass of shells were sawn into building blocks and used in much the same way as we now use cement building blocks. The Old Pearler Restaurant and the church are examples. Today, these “bricks” are only taken to repair existing structures.

The little shells and the very salty water were amazing, as it the whole beach. The white shell beach, the turquoise water and deep blue sky look gorgeous. It is very flat and you would have to go a long way out to have a swim. We talked to a young couple with the man preparing to get into the water. “It is freezing,” we say to him. “I am German,” he replied, “so for me this is great.” But after about 50m walk in the water was still around his ankled. The water did taste incredibly salty, but I think if it had been slightly warmer and less windy, I would have ventured out further than ankle deep.

We walked down to the “feral animal” fence that went across the peninsular and extended into the water, Kerry very much doubting how any fence could keep a cat out. But it did look formidable and was also electric (solar power).

On the way out we wend a few hundred meters south to see what happened to the feral fence at the road. There was a very wide cattle grid there with the fence coming right up to it on each side There were also wing walls on either side of the fence where it met the grid.

Next stop heading north was Goulet Bluff, and what a stunning place this is. The dirt road in took us to a junction about half way up the southern bluff, looking down over a wonderful white-sand beach.

Ahead was a track to the beach, but we stopped for photos. I decided to climb the bluff and followed a very steep and rough 4WD track up the side. At the top was a track leading along the top of the ridge. After about 100m, I came to the end of the ridge and had stunning views down to the next beaches back to the south. Absolutely stunning.

To the north the coral fringe was a good few hundred meters off the coast, a beautiful aquamarine against the deep deep blue of the ocean. It just blew me away.

I retraced my steps and went back to get Kerry to have a look. On the way back down I thought the 4WD track as not so bad after all and suggested we drive up. Which we did, then into a small bay in which to turn around. We got that on our video – check it out here. More photos.

We drove down the track and then down to the beach where we wandered around for nearly an hour – and we left reluctantly. A really delightful place, so many photos.

To the north is another stunning beach – Whalebone. We again came in about half way up the bluff so got some more stunning photos – such an amazing contrast with the white sandy beach and the aquamarine reef area.

I walked up the bluff a bit for photos while Kerry drove down to the beach. There she made lunch, got 2 stools out and we sat on the beach to have lunch. Delightful.

Kerry waded and found a live crab. A funny little thing – almost transparent with red boxing gloves. We walked to the northern end of the beach just so that we could see what lies beyond. Yes, another beach but this one was lined with black rocks rather that the white sand we had expected.

The next detour is Fowlers Camp, which was nice, more a camping area, but not so good as the others..

Eagle Bluff is simply amazing – a walkway around the cliff that allows people to look down and see the dugongs, sharks, rays and turtles swimming within the crystal clear waters of the reef. That day we saw 3 or 4 sharks and same number of rays. Bring your binoculars.

To the north of the Bluff I saw a really good example of a birridas.

We did not go to Ocean Park – a large aquarium. Many people later told us this was a mistake – it is a great place to visit. Next time!. Then we called into Denham Lookout, with its famous Thong Shack – that is the Aussie definition of thongs (things you wear on your feet) rather than the European definition. Let the pictures to the talking.

Back at the camp, it had been a long day so we went down to the local Hotel for dinner. Kerry had excellent whiting and my Sunday roast beef was also pretty good.

To see our photo from the southern part of the peninsular, click here

Day 4 – 4 Sept – Francois Peron NP (Wulyibidi)

We got away at about 8:00 For some strange reason, perhaps the strong winds, I had an almost sleepless night, only nodding off finally around 1.30am, then still waking up a few times.

It was only 7km north of the Monkey Mia Rd junction to the Peron Heritage Precinct. There, we had a look around, not that there is much to see. There was a large tin building but decorated in a weird way that I could not get. But out the back was the hot tub fed by very hot groundwater. We were already looking forward to a soak in that as we came out.

We had not seen the tyre deflater station so just did that ourselves. I let the tyres down to about 18psi. Then at the start of the track north, we drove past the tyre pressure station, which was then quite busy.

The drive is on a one lane track made up of very sandy soil with some corrugations. But every now and again we came to patches where the sand was quite deep. If another car had come against us, one of us would have to pull over into the small side-waiting areas. We saw little else except a few birridas on the way. It was not far, just took a long time. And thankfully we did not throw up much dust. I found it quite strange that there was so little dust thrown up – the sand must weigh a lot more than the normal dirt around the places we have been.

Near the Cape the road crossed a massive birridas – lots of potholes here, but no sand. After this, I had been assured that the tracks were good, but that was not the case. In fact the worst of the whole drive. Some very deep sand and at times we had to get into 4WD, at least for a short distance.

Our first port of call is the beautiful Cattle Well. At the end of the short drive in, is lots of soft sand. We pulled in to the side, not game to hit the beach given our lack of experience. It is a short walk to the beach, and what a beach was before us.

Pretty soon, a 4WD hits the beach going quite quickly, and I saw it was the 4WD tour that we had enquired about. We spent ages walking along the beach in both directions – Kerry’s favourite pastime.

Next we went out to South Gregories. Guess what, another stunning beach.

Then we were in Gregories, which had a rocky outcrop at the southern end. But the northern parts, the majority of the beach was the usual wonderful experience on silky white sand. I found a crab shell, but it was extremely fragile. We nearly kept it, but as it still had the eyeballs attached, we figured it would start to smell.

Then we went out to Bottle Bay. A very simple but pretty beach.

The Cape is very different, dominated by stunning red cliffs surrounding glorious beaches. Contrast this to the white sands, aquamarine reef waters, deeper blue seas and the blue of the sky – brilliant.

We walked around the beach for a good while (waiting for other tourists to move so I can get a people-free shot), moving around the point to see the view of the magnificent Skipjack Point. It was great to see the mass of birds – shags and seagulls were everywhere, but mostly forming a line along the water edge.

Then we walked up to the top of the cape for some great views, and photos. We could really see the choppy line away from the shore where the two tides came together. The changes in colour are amazing as the currents meet here. They also form a dangerous rip.

I walked on to the lookout, with views over Skipjack Point, What a wonderful place. Kerry went back to The Cruiser and made lunch.

From this lovely place, it is a short drive to Skipjack Point, which is very similar to Eagle Bluff. There are 2 platforms where you can look down onto the crystal clear water and see what may be swimming past. We saw a shark and a ray. Also many shags on teh rocks below.

From there is seemed a very long drive back to the turnoff to Big Lagoon – only 42km but on a crap road so it seemed like many times that. Kerry managed to doze for much of the drive. Then it was another 10km out to the lagoon – does not sound much but it seemed to go on for ever. The Lagoon was like a massive lake of crystal clear water, just inviting us to run in and have a swim. But sanity prevailed, and we just walked around the lagoon edge for a while.

Then it was swap drivers, and back to the tyre pressure spot where, luckily, one pump was free. In no time at all we are back on the bitumen and heading home. It was not until the next day that we realised we had forgotten the dip in the hot water tub. That would have been nice.

To see our photo from the Francois Peron NP, click here

Day 5 – 5 Sept – Monkey Mia

We had to be on site at 7.45, and it is a 25km drive to Monkey Mia, so we were up early, leaving home at about 7. The unusual name: we read that many Shark Bay locals debate its origin. The “Mia” part comes from an Indigenous term for “home”, and many believe that the “Monkey” refers to the name of a ship which visited the area. Others believe it refers to the Malaysian pearl farmers who worked the area during 1850s and would have pet monkeys with them.

We drove into the sun, not great, but it was a good road. Approaching Monkey Mia, we see a lady cyclist pushing her cycle up a last hill. We get to the carpark and pay our $8pp fee (Seniors discount). A the beach we could see a couple of dolphins ready and waiting, just casually swimming along the water’s edge.

Down at the water there are already quite a few people milling around on the steps. This more than doubles by 7:45, when the rangers front us and explain the rules.

As the bottlenose dolphins are wild, numbers and the exact time of their visit varies but generally the first sighting of the dolphins arriving anytime from 7.30am. We saw 3 there at that time.
The dolphins usually visit the shore up to three times a day – there are 3 feeds between 7.45 and 12 noon.
Between four to seven dolphins visit for daily feedings, with up to 20 others visiting occasionally, often sighted in the bay with swimmers or on wildlife cruises. We saw 4.
Protected by WA’s Department of Parks and Wildlife, the dolphins are well looked after and provided only three fish per day maximum, to ensure these dolphins continue to hunt and remain wild.
For each dolphin, volunteer feeders bring out the fish in silver buckets and they offer to individuals in the the audience, plus friends, the opportunity to feed the dolphins.
When all the feeders are on their last fish, then they together fed that to their dolphin, and then emptied their buckets, signalling to the dolphins that the feed was finished.

Such lovely gentle creatures. I guess pretty strict rules are necessary or the dolphins wouldn’t keep coming or alternatively, would die off if they were only hand fed and couldn’t teach their offspring to hunt for fish.

As feeding time approached I went up to the jetty for a different photo perspective, while Kerry stayed with the mob.

After that we walked to the pier – it is all pretty.

We met our van neighbours, Kath & Dennis, whom we had had a drink with the previous evening. They has slept in and just missed the feeding – they waited for the next one.

As we were chatting the cyclist we had seen on our way over came up to Kerry. She looked late middle age but very fit. She asked if she could buy a cigarette from me as just very occasionally she likes to have one. I was only too happy to share my supply. She said she was German and cycling around much of Australia, and we talked about that for a while, We did mention that as tourists we loved Munich. She was not impressed and laughed, “the tourists only like 2 things – the beer and the ladies tits”. Perhaps.

We then walked around the lovely Monkey Mia beach for a while.

On the way back to Denham, we called on to see the Little Lagoon, which incredibly, was a smaller replica of the Big Lagoon. A great place just outside of Denham town.

We went out to look at the very slow moving river between the Lagoon and the ocean. This was crystal clear, We walked down to the beach and saw, guess what, another lovely beach.

From there we went back to Mobi where I tried to catch up with this post. Later Kerry got to work cleaning up a few shells she found on local beaches.

Even later we had a drink with out neighbours – Kath and Dennis. They had come over to look at our “collection” of shells, and stayed for a couple of drinks. We got on really well together and had a very late dinner with all the talking. They are from Geelong, Victoria, and have been travelling much the same route as us having left home in April.

To see our photo from Monkey Mia, click here

To see all of our photos, click here

To see our photo from the southern part of the peninsular, click here

To see our photo from the Francois Peron NP, click here,