Sharks, Dolphins and more Sharks

Each new area of WA we drive through brings us new and more gorgeous surrounds. Kalbarri is a national park just north of Geraldton and just when you thought the coastlines couldn't get any better, they do. After seeing our first Roo's (see last blog) we sat on the edge of the cliffs gazing at the coastal cliffs as the sun was setting. The cliff colours were all the shades of red and orange that you would find in any good art shop as well as a beautiful range of blues in the sea crashing away at the foot of the cliffs and a rather marvelous selection of pinks and blues lighting up the sky as the sun went down. We took ages finding a camp site as every 2-3 k we were having to stop and have another look at the scenery, the Ozzies are very good at sign posting scenic views, they even have camera signs and laybys so you can stop and take a pic.
We ended up at the Red bluff caravan park and spent a couple of nights there as we explored the local sights. One of these sights was 'Natures Window' which was situated about 30 k inland in the Kalbarri national park proper. We had to drive down an unsealed red dust road for about 27 k just to get there, bumping and rattling the whole way, I was sure something was going to come a cropper, but we made it ok. The drive along the dust track was pretty uninspiring in terms of scenery, just outback bush and very flat, but when we got to our destination we discovered that there was a huge gorge and river cutting through the barren wilderness.
We had originally planned to do a walk, but as always we'd arrived late, so had a short one instead, taking in the now repetitively unbelievable scenery that we have come to associate with WA. Natures Window itself is a hole in a rock, you've guessed it, that looks like a window. The view through the window looks out onto part of the gorge and we took the obligatory photos and were on our way again. Its a hard life all this driving, scenery viewing, wildlife watching type action, but we're yet again putting on brave faces and struggling on.

Not being able to take any more of the unreal landscapes of Kalbarri, we headed north again, this time with Shark Bay our destination. Unfortunately for us, Shark Bay proved to be just as beautiful in its own way as Kalbarri and we were obliged to spend another few days there roving about in the camper. It just happens to be a World Heritage site and fulfills all four criteria meaning that it's an area of outstanding natural beauty, has endangered species living there, unique habitats, ancient fossil stone things, yadda, yadda, yadda. All this boiled down to making it a jolly pleasant place to spend some time. The whole peninsula of Shark Bay is a Marine park and is filled to bursting with sharks, Loggerhead turtles (endangered), dugons (endangered), whales, dolphins and alsorts of other critters. First up was a visit to the Ocean Park Aquarium which is a family run place with the aim of creating a naturally run aquarium. Its all open air and in the middle of the small site is a great big pond full of sharks. They feed the sharks (as you can see) by dangling half a fish in the water, so enticing them up to the surface for us to see. The really nice thing about this place was that there was hardly anyone else there and you got a personal tour around by one of the family. They also had a couple of baby loggerhead turtles that had been rescued, very cute and also a sea snake, which we were able to have a stroke of, insanely poisonous, but very docile creatures. Having had enough of sharks we headed for Eagle's Bluff, where you can stand on the cliffs looking down onto the bay and in the shallow waters at the foot of the cliffs you can see......Sharks! :) What an amazing place, to be able to see sharks, turtles, rays and dugons from the cliff top, how cool is that? Also flying about were some ?eagles (need Chris or Tina to confirm), some kind of bird of prey anyway, they looked very majestic sweeping around and over the cliff face.
Shark bay gets its name for obvious reasons, there's tons of sharks everywhere, not only lots of harmless reef sharks, but also lots of quite dangerous Tiger sharks, so when I asked the shark man at Ocean Park if it was ok to snorkel in the bay, he said we should wait until we got to Coral Bay up the coast. He said he'd snorkeled with Tiger sharks in his youth, they're very big, inquisitive and will eat anything, so best avoided, which I thought was quite sensible advice :) See if you'd fancy snorkeling with a Tiger shark.
Among the bays less scary inhabitants are bottle nose dolphins. In a tiny little place called Monkey Mia is a beach where for about 30 years wild dolphins have been coming regular as clockwork to get a free feed. Going to feed the dolphins is not as brilliant as it may sound however, as the circus that surrounds it, turns it into one massive shitfight. There must have been getting on for a hundred people trying to get a look at the dolphins, which was way too many for us, so after a few photos, we turned our attention to the Pelicans strutting around the beach, who were much more interesting. I'm pretty sure we do take an interest in things that don't involve wildlife on this trip, but I'm struggling to remember what now.
On our way out of Shark Bay, we dropped into have a look at Shell beach, a beach where the 'sand' is actually billions of tiny shells. Very white and crunchy and cool looking. We walked about in the baking heat for a while before heading to have a nose around the Stromatolites. These are basically living fossils that have been there for millions of years and are one of the features of Shark Bay that gives it its World Heritage status. Unfortunately, they're incredibly dull and not even interesting to look at.
We were about to leave the area, trip to see rock formations wasted, when we spied the most disgusting spider we've ever seen. We'd been looking forward to seeing some kind of giant / poisonous spider in Oz, as it's supposed to be riddled with nasty critters, when we came upon the Golden Orb spider. I don't think its poisonous, but it's pretty big and what it may lack in poison its makes up with all round mingingness in abundance. The egg shaped part of its body is easily the size of a Cadburys cream egg, no joke and I'm betting a lot less tasty!


More photo's from Kalbarri and Shark Bay


Next time on the Andy and Sam blog: Will Sam ever dive again?




Listening to: The Pixies - Dolittle