Day 2: Monkey Mia to Coral Bay

I didn't expect today to be both fabulous and frustrating at times. But it was, and I was quite surprised by it.

But first, Monkey Mia itself. A fabulous place that everyone should visit at least once. I've put a panorama on Facebook already but here's a better shot.

Early morning on Monkey Mia beach

Having arrived late, I just went for the quick and simple setup as it was dark and I was hungry and knackered.

A comfy swag close to the coffee

Now for the fabulous bits. Starting with the dolphins. Getting close to these amazing animals is always good, and when it's done in an environment that is designed to educate the public and allow them to get very close without creating too much impact on what are, after all, wild animals is great. The chosen few will never forget being able to give a fish to a wild dolphin, and one mother turning up with her two year old calf was just perfect.

Mother and calf

The Dolphins came in really close

There aren't times for feeding. The Dolphins know the routine and come in if they want to. For the first session they stayed about 10m out, then went off chasing fish. This is from about 20 mins later when another party came in. Interestingly, they only do the interactions with the females as the males get a bit aggressive and nippy.

As time was marching on I had to get going. This is where the frustration kicked in. Driving out in daylight you start to get an appreciation for how much exploring you can do on tracks in the area. And I had to drive past! Argh!!

Still, I did stop at two places I really couldn't drive past, both in Hamelin Bay. The Shell beach is formed from millions of Fragum cockles that thrive in the heightened salinity found in shallow lagoons where there is a lot of evaporation. As their predators can't handle these conditions, they thrive to the extent that the beach is 9m deep in places of just shells. Limestone in the making, and it has been quarried in this area. Amazing to see.

Just shells, and shell fragments on this beach. No sand.

For the same reason, the Stromatolites and Microbialites love it here as well. This is one of the few places you can see them (and it's way better than the ones at Cervantes). To protect thm, you're restricted to a walkway, but the geologist in me was dying to get a closer look...

Masses of Stromatolites (the ones raised up) and Microbialites (the ground mass carpeting the rest of the area)

The rest of the day was just driving to Coral Bay, where I'll stay tomorrow as well. It's been a couple of decent days driving, so the rest will do me good.That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!