Denham - Shark Bay - Monkey Mia

For the first time on our trip, the weather has spoiled our plans. We had booked a tour to Dirk Hartog Island, leaving from Denham, which unfortunately was cancelled due to strong winds and rain. Oh well, you can't do everything. (We also wanted to do the
whaleshark swim at Exmouth but couldn't get accommodation, so we skipped that town)

Denham is the closest town to the most westerly point on mainland Australia but to actually go there it is either by boat (which we would have seen on the day at Dirk cruise) or by 4WD over a hundred and something km. It's not something we were keen to do. We did find some other interesting things to do.

We travelled down to Shell Beach, appropriately named as the beach is composed entirely of small white cockle shells - no sand - apparently the highest concentration of cockle shells in the world. Eagle Bluff, just south of Denham, had a great boardwalk along the cliff, and we managed to spot a shark in the water below.

We drove out to Monkey Mia, which is the main draw card of the area. This is where the dolphins come in to feed. In recent years, it has become over commercialised, named conservation park rather than a national park, so charge an entry fee not covered by the national parks pass. So, we didn't go to see dolphins being fed but wanted to see the area anyway. I must admit it is a very pretty area - calm and peaceful.Read more