World Heritage Shark Bay and Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort

 

Spanning 2.2 million hectares of wild natural beauty, World Heritage Shark Bay is where rugged landscapes, meet calm seas teeming with marine life. We had been really looking forward to this part of our trip as we remember mum and dad both loving the area when they visited whilst living in WA over 30 years ago. We had wanted to visit way back then – but it was just too far to drive when we were only visiting for two weeks. 30 years on and we had finally made it!

Our first stop along Shark Bay Road was to Shell Beach. The beach is made solely up of small, white Hamelin cockle shells (no sand) and stretches for over 60km with shells up to 10m deep in some sections! It is one of two beaches in the world of its kind and was very cool to see.

As we got back into the Landcruiser and continued on our journey north, we were eyeing off the building dark clouds. We pulled into Denham, just after midday and managed to grab a pie from the local bakery and head back to the car as the rain started. As we journeyed the final 23km’s to Monkey Mia the rain became quite heavy, much to the delight of locals who claimed they were in desperate need of it. We couldn’t complain as it was our first day time rain since leaving Sydney over 4 months ago! The down pour didn’t last long, as after checking in at the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort it had fined up again. After setting up on our site and marveling at several emu’s that were wandering around all the vans, we took a walk around the resort and headed for a stroll along the beach (only 200m from our site). The white, pristine sand and turquoise water of the bay was very beautiful and it wasn’t long till we spotted several dolphins playing and feeding in the waters close to the beach.

Day Two we headed over to the Dolphin Experience area and waited for the friendly bottlenose dolphins to arrive. After about an hour we had one dolphin visit the beach, and amongst all the other visitors, we waded ankle deep into the water whilst the ranger explained about the dolphins in the area. Feeling hungry, and having met up with Dave & Mish who were staying at Denham, we headed up to the resort restaurant for coffee and breakfast. Whilst eating we had to be very mindful of the pesky emu’s that were harassing the diners, with one lady losing her avocado smash sourdough in one pecking swoop. We spent the rest of the day catching up on some washing, blogging, reading, relaxing and planning the next stages of our trip (which is rather time consuming).

On the morning of Day Three we grabbed coffees, relaxed on the lovely blue, cushioned chairs at the resort, whilst looking out at the bay, and waited for the dolphin’s to arrive. We didn’t have to wait long as soon there were two dolphins close to the shore saying hi to all the tourists and receiving their payback fish. It was then back to the van for breakfast and to pack a picnic lunch for our 4WD adventure in Francois Peron National Park. After a quick stop at the Peron Heritage Precinct, we lowered the tyre pressure and away we went. The 42km track was reasonably good in most spots, with only a few hairy moments where we slid around a bit in several sand pits. We admired the barren scenery of the salt lakes as we drove through them whilst making our way to the tip of the peninsula. We arrived at Cape Peron and were gob smacked at the richness of colour before us – amazing!! Rich red soil, white sand and turquoise water – truly stunning. We also saw the line where ocean and bay waters converged and after capturing some drone footage, we walked along the top of the cliffs and then down onto the beach for a closer look out at the incredible blue water whilst walking beneath the iron rich, red cliffs.

It was then only another 1.5km of more sandy track to the lookout at Skipjack Point. We walked around to the lookouts and were delighted to see a shark gliding by and became extremely excited when we spotted two large dugongs leisurely cruising in the crystal blue waters below!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch, perched high on the cliff whilst looking out to sea and then headed back down the sand tracks, pulling in to see Gregories Beach and Big Lagoon on the return journey. A wonderful day of adventure!

Day Four we were greeted by four dolphins, including a baby calf, at the morning Dolphin Experience. After a late leisurely breakfast, we hired a double kayak for a couple of hours and were surrounded by more dolphins as we paddled to the National Park at the end of the bay. Unfortunately we didn’t see any turtles during our paddle but we did see two large manta rays on our return journey.

That evening we enjoyed drinks and pizza at the resort Monkey Bar while watching the sunset overlooking the bay – again seeing many dolphins frolicking in the water. What a gorgeous place to spend time.