There’s not a lot to see up this stretch of the North West Coastal Highway, and certainly no coast (which is actually some 50km to the west). There were just fairly straight sections of undulating tarmac cutting through the red soiled scrubland to either side, with the odd bit of road kill thrown in for good measure (usually kangaroos). A couple of roadhouses provide fuel and refreshments if required, but the 180km until the turnoff to Shark Bay went quickly enough, even at our fairly sedate speed.
After another 30km we turned off the main road to call into Hamelin Bay, one of the few places on earth where you can see stromatolites, the oldest form of life, virtually unchanged for 1900 million years. SPOT
These single celled microbes build up rock like formations and played an important role in oxygenating the atmosphere which then allowed more complex life forms, such as humans, to develop.
To get to the boardwalk that takes you out over the shallow waters to see the stromatolites, you have to pass Hamelin Bay’s historic telegraph station, dating from 1884,
and a cockleshell quarry
where blocks of the friable amalgam were cut and used for building material (some shell buildings can still be seen in Denham).
The stromatolites come in several forms, all of which can be seen in this one small area.
Another 60km up the peninsula is Shell Beach, aptly named as it’s composed of millions of cockleshells up to 10m thick in places. SPOT
It’s a beautiful spot, with the brilliant white beach contrasting with the crystal clear, turquoise blue of the bay, helped no doubt by the clear skies and sun (a bit of which we both caught today - more sun cream required).
We had a paddle and a walk along the water’s edge, leaving just as two coach loads of tourists arrived. Only moments earlier we were commenting on how quiet it was so it served us right really.
Eagle Bluff is on the other, western side of the peninsula, and we drove over to have a look as a boardwalk along the cliff edge affords views down into the calm waters below. Again, no marine life was to be seen, so we left for Denham, the main centre on the peninsula.
Arriving as the sun was starting to set, the waterfront was bathed in golden light. We popped into the tourist information centre to see about the dolphin encounter at Monkey Mia, a resort about 25km to the east, and to also enquire about possible boat trips.
Despite reading that some find the dolphin encounter, where you stand lined up in knee deep water whist the dolphins are fed, to be a tightly controlled and rather sterile experience, we thought we would give it a go and booked into the caravan park at the resort as feeding time is 8am. The campsite doesn’t have the best facilities, although it’s not helped by the fact that we’re camped near the water desalination plant which I’m sure will make us want to go to the loo in the night! We’ll need to get our wild camp count back up soon as both of us prefer finding our own secluded spots to sleep, not to mention liking saving money. Heini says he avoids caravan parks at all costs, although he’s been at it longer than we have and is a bit more discreet in his camper van than we are with our roof tent (although we can go places he cannot). SPOT
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