Monkey Mia WA

A long travel day today retracing part of our way back down the highway to the Shark Bay turnoff where we again headed northwest towards Monkey Mia.

We passed back below the Tropic of Capricorn and crossed the 26th Parallel (twice), which we’ve subsequently learned is the horizontal mid point of Australia (ie. if you folded Australia in half lengthwise it would be the line of symmetry). Hence we’re officially still in the northwest but not quite in the tropics anymore.

There’s evidently an exodus of visitors from the region heading south following the Total Solar Eclipse and the highway patrol are out in force. We encountered no less than three on route today, plus an RBT. Of course we passed no problems. However, upon noticing Anthony’s newly acquired West Coast Eagles cap one patrolling Officer joked that he had expected we would have been drowning our sorrows LOL. We pleaded ignorance and pointed to our NSW licence plates!

As we cruised along, Anthony finally got to see a big Western Red Kangaroo (on his ‘bucket list’). Sadly it was roadkill but as consolation he also got to tick off seeing a Wedge Tail Eagle (reliving a childhood memory) albeit feasting on the roadkill! Moving on we saw several more Wedgies soaring overhead.

As we recrossed the Wooramel River we were surprised to see all the water had receded and it was once again running upside down, making our stay there only a week earlier all the more special.

On the Shark Bay Road out to Monkey Mia we stopped briefly at Shell Beach, which as the name implies is made up of trillions of tiny shells from one type of animal - the Fragum cockle.

Finally, just before dusk we rolled into the jewel in the RAC crown - the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort which will be our base for the next two nights. We have a fabulous site right opposite the beach entrance, complete with a well-appointed little ensuite.

After a long day on the road we enjoyed a casual dinner at the on site ‘Monkey Bar’ before sitting back with a round of Butterscotch Schnapps and Baileys to plot our adventures for tomorrow. Czytaj więcej