4th-6th June- Monkey Mia

The tour moves on late morning but I've arranged to stay in Monkey Mia a bit longer. It's basically a large resort on the sea, 20 odd kms from the next nearest (also isolated) place. The bar is right on the edge of the sand and the dorm a stones'- throw from the bar, an excellent place for a few days relaxing. Emus wander around pecking food scraps, pelicans preen on the beach and there's a quaintness in that to get to the 1 small shop, or anywhere else it's a short walk along the sand.




Each and almost every day for the last 40 odd years several Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins have visited the beach and interacted with, initially fishermen feeding them. They swim right into the shallows by the beach where they are fed in a what is nowadays quite a heavily regulated way but still providing the main tourist draw.

Over the next couple of days I see some dolphins up close from the beach and feed one. I take a couple of boat trips in beautiful sunshine. On the best one they spot a dugong in the shallows- these huge, shy mammals are also known as sea cows and feed on sea grass in just a few places in the world. We see ours rise to the surface for air every few minutes. In the clear shallow waters there are also eagle rays, more dolphins, turtles and small sharks and everywhere cormarants which, along with dolphins, are the main food for the tiger sharks which give Shark Bay its name.

The fair weather and fantastic sunsets give way as the wind starts to pick up on the 5th and by the 6th it's overcast, windy and raining. The dolphins don't come in, the boats can't go out and there's not much to do except read my book until I'm desperate for activity and walk along the dunes, wrapped up against the elements. When the wind finally drops and the ocean stops engulfing the entire beach there's a soft evening light and the sea is calm as a millpond. At least that's the beauty of Australia, when the weather turns bad it's not for ever!