Sunday, July 3rd to Tuesday July 5th, 2001
Sunday morning we left our Denham accommodation quite early....again (0700) so that we could catch a dolphin feeding at nearby Monkey Mia. Basically it is an interaction between a group of wild dolphins who have become use to having a few extra handouts so tourists can get up close and take some pictures. No, we can’t touch them or ride them and they don’t do surprisingly sophisticated attempts to do double backward somersaults through hoops while whistling the star-spangled banner (obscure movie reference there.....anyone?) but they do come up nice and close and honestly I think they spend as much time checking us out as we do them. And other times they get distracted by other fish in the area and ignore everyone completely.
Early morning sky at Monkey Mia. I'm starting to think I'm seeing far too many sunrises but they are all so pretty so I won't complain.
Look.......dolphins. There are some rules when it comes to the feedings. They only give them so much a day, spread over 3 feedings between 0800 and 1200 daily. They don’t feed male dolphins (they are a lot more aggressive and tend to bite). They also don`t feed calves. Sorry not sure how old they have to be before the tourists can feed them. On this day we met a small group called the Puck Group, named after the head matriarch of the group, Puck. There were some little calves and a few others. I didn`t get to feed dolphins (actually I didn`t really want to and there were tons of other people who did) and every time one came close to me and I tried to take a picture…..people got in my way. So this picture is the best I could do.
A pretty calm and relaxing place this Monkey Mia. It wasn't a bad place to spend the morning.
I feel like I should talk a little bit more about the Shark Bay World Heritage Area (or site.....I use the two terms interchangeably) but I almost feel like I should go back further and discuss World Heritage Sites. I have already visited a few here in Australia (and in the other countries I have had the opportunity to visit over the last few years) and I'm not sure I've explained why an area is named as a World Heritage site.
The World Heritage Convention stipulates the creation of a World Heritage List. Getting on the list is a very intensive process which involves a intergovernmental twenty-one member elected Committee, pre-selection, nomination and evaluation processes, and expert advice from Non-Governmental Organizations (IUCN and ICOMOS). To be included on the list the site must be of universal value and meet at least one of the 10 selection criteria. Those 10 criteria are:
I: Human creative genius, II: Interchange of values, III: Testimony to cultural history, IV: Significance in human history, V: Traditional human settlement, VI: Heritage associated with events of universal significance, VII: Natural phenomena or beauty, VIII: Major stages of earth's history, IX: Significant ecological and biological process, and X: Significant natural habitat for biodiversity.
I'll give you a couple examples. Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta (over Drumheller way just down the road from the old homestead in Beiseker) is a world heritage site because it meets criteria VII and criteria VIII. The Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur (obviously in Egypt) are a world heritage site because they meet criteria I, criteria III, and criteria VI. Shark Bay meets criteria VII, VIII, IX and X (which happen to be the 4 natural criteria).
On a side note, between 1978 and 2008, 878 world heritage sites were named. So far I've visited around 50 of them. I better get a move on.......there are a whole lot more to see.
Let's get back to this trip. After a nice relaxing morning we headed of to our next location, Coral Bay.
I managed to grab a picture of this giant bird of prey. I think it is a wedge-tail hawk but it may in fact be some other kind of hawk. We slowed down and pulled over to try to get a better look.
And a better look we did get. Here is a pair of them. Hanging out together. Funny to mention that when a tour bus is pulled over on the side of the road and people are taking pictures, other people will stop as well......even if they can't see what we are looking at.
We had lunch at Hamlin Pool (where we saw the stromatolites the day before) before making our way to Carnarvon. Not much in Carnarvon except fruit and vegetables (and a lot of fruit and vegetables) but we stopped for a few minutes.
This satellite dish is in Carnarvon. It played an important role during the 1969 moon landing. It was part of a network of satellite dishes in Australia that were used to communicate with the space shuttle when they were floating over this part of the world. This is not the main one they are talking about, but check out the movie, "The Dish". It tells the story of the giant dish in NSW which was the main dish used and how it changed the town it is found in.
Some of the scenery we passed on our trip. Huge flooding in this area not so long ago.
At another Roadhouse but this one was a little bit more interesting than some of the others. At least there were old things to look at.
Watching the sun go down as we made our drive.
Eventually we arrived in Coral Bay. It was dark and the weather was cool but I had great hopes that Monday we would wake up to sunshine and warm weather so that I could hang out on the beach.
Monday, July 4th, 2011
Well we woke up to nothing but wind and cold and cloud so my beach day was a little ruined. But I did manage to get in the water for a few minutes. Coral Bay is at about the halfway point of the Ningaloo Reef, which like the Great Barrier Reef is full of all kinds of wonderful fish and aquatic like. Also like the Great Barrier Reef it is starting to bleach due to the rising water temperature (wouldn't know it today though). But unlike the Great Barrier Reef, most visitors don`t make it here so It is still pretty un-touched.
Myself and one of the other travelers (Laura) waiting for the sun to come out. Mikey was also with us (she took this picture). We were very disappointed.
It`s nice here in Coral Bay because you can access the reef by just walking off the beach. Just a little swim and you will be out amongst all the fish and coral you could want. The water temperature……not the 27 C (81 F) I was swimming in on the Great Barrier Reef. And the air temperature.......well it was even colder but I managed to stay out for a few minutes before returning to the hostel for a nice warm shower.
Man, I like these hours. Hopefully the nurse who takes care of this station doesn't also have to answer out of hours emergencies.
After lunch a group of use took a short walk down towards the marina. As you can imagine there is a lot of sport and charter fishing in the area. What I found interesting was walking along next to the Wind turbines. Of course like everywhere else there is a big push to use more renewable energy here in Australia and you see the wind turbines all of the place. I’ve never been close enough to hear the sound they make……and they make a lot a noise. There are actually some people who say that the noise and the sound wave they produce is actually harmful to humans and obviously wildlife was well.
We eventually had to go back and get back on the bus. We then made the 1.5 hour drive from Coral Bay to Exmouth.
We had 2 nights in Exmouth which would hopefully give us another chance at swimming the 280 kilometre long Ningaloo Reef. We had our fingers crossed for some better weather.
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
We woke up and got a closer look at Exmouth…..and saw some sunshine. Exmouth is a small little place that basically came into existence because the US Navy had a base here. They actually still own some of the land and have some sort of communication towers set up on it......or that's what they tell us. Enter your own conspiracy theory here.
We stopped off at the Cape Range Visitor Centre (that`s the national park we were in) to check out a few things about the area. I also sucked it up and bought an underwater camera……..at the very reasonable price of $26.50. It really hurt me to do it but if I hadn`t bought it I would have seen sharks and turtles and everything like that.
I just found this really cute. On each chair is different Australian animal. It made me smile. Back to the Shark Bay World Heritage site (and these cute little animals), it is home to all kinds of animals including dugongs (sea cows that come to feed on the sea grass that is abundant here), humpback whales, sea turtles (including the endangered loggerhead turtle), whale sharks, manta rays not to mention all the corals and and birds and little rodents that all live side my side. Some numbers: at least 100 species of reptiles and amphibians, 240 bird species, 320 fish, 80 corals, 218 bivalves and 820 species of plants all call the area home.
We found a really nice snorkeling sport at Turquoise Bay (not just a clever name……it was so pretty). It was out of the wind so mildly warmer, and the sun was out so we headed out to see some fish. I missed the turtle and the shark but I did manage to spy an octopus who practically changed colours before my eyes. It was really neat. The current was so strong however that if you stopped kicking for more than a few seconds you would be carried metres away from where you were. I kind of got lost while trying to re-look at a few things. But so worth dragging my snorkel gear all the way there for it. Such a beautiful place.
Some of the fish I found. Tons of them everywhere.
Happy to be in the water.....but wishing I had seen a turtle. I even would have taken a shark.
Now if you look closely, I have cornered a bunch of fish under this coral. Not sure they were happy about it but I was able to look at them a lot closer in a confined space.
After lunch we headed off to find some sand boarding. I had done this on Kangaroo Island as well but this time around we sand boarded with a twist….down the hill…..into the water. It was so much fun. I was only a mild fan of sand boarding before today but now, I`m a huge fan. Sand boarding should always end in the water.
The first time down the hill we were a little conservative.
And then we discovered that with enough speed we could make it into the water.
And there I go. It was a lot of fun.
Our final stop before heading back to Exmouth was at the Vlaming Head Lighthouse. I can only guess that it is not an active light house as the shades were drawn (so that the lens doesn`t magnify the sun and light stuff on fire) and all the doors were locked. But being a lighthouse it was on the area's highest point and gave a great view of the area.
A look at the Vlaming Head Lighthouse.
And a look at the view from the lighthouse.
A little video of the echidna we found beside the road. They are super cute. We totally harrased him but at least now I can say I've seen one. I'm pretty sure he was super happy to see us drive away so he could escape.
From there it was to the grocery store (we eat WAAAYYYY too much so had to go buy more food) and then back to the caravan park to cook dinner. Tomorrow is going to be a very long travel day with a great destination…Karijini National Park.
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment