Summary: Fast forward to Shark Bay, stromatolites are alright, skip the shell, Monkey Mia, What’s your hurry?
We rose with sunrise, got some food and got on our way at 7am. We passed the turnoffs for Exmouth (which has some cool stuff) and just got on our way to Monkey Mia. Along with crossing below the Tropic of Capricorn, we went through one legit town in the first 7 hours, Carnarvon. Carnarvon has a big jetty, but even better it has a big grocery store. We’ve restocked the eskie and we moved on to Shark Bay.
Shark Bay is simply amazing. It is a shallow, warm bay with …sharks (bull, tiger, hammerhead, and several that don’t eat humans) as well as a lot of shells and a lot of dolphins. The first thing we came to were stromatolites (sort of a pre-coral). I had planned to skip the stromatolites, since I thought they were 30km off the road, but they were only 5 km off the road. I’m glad I went. These were among the first life forms as earth cooled (cooled from a big volcano, not cooled from ice ages) and they gave earth the starter capital of oxygen that led to our development. It really is humbling to know that you are in the one place that most resembles earth 3 million years ago with the little creatures that gave us the oxygen we needed to develop. Several died from the sea level lowering over the past millennium (those are the dry photos), but they continue to pump out oxygen and I thank them for that. While at the stromatolites, we met a German couple from Mainz with a little child. Alex said hi and we were on our way.
We then passed the turnoff for the loop that goes out along the outer banks to the salt mine. The name of this dirt track is “Useless Loop”. Needless to say, we skipped it. This would make a great photo if they made a good sign for it, but the sign is small and understated.
Next, we got to Shell Beach, named after the mollusks not the oil company. The entire beach is shells and just as I said in my WA preview, it was a lot like cheeseless pizza (yeah that’s different…but what’s the point?). Alex could stand in one place for about 20 seconds before saying “owwie”. (Aside – yes, the Indian Ocean really is that colorful)
We drove past a shark oceanarium. Not sure if it will be open on the way back through, but we’ll check it out then. We were so close we just wanted to get there. Denham looked nice enough – nice waterfront park & playground – but we hurried up and got to Monkey Mia.
Monkey Mia is awesome. Our room is in front of a stand of palm trees overlooking the water. We can see the dolphin interaction area from our room. We went in the water already and Alex is loving it. Talk about well-thought-out, the pool is mostly covered with a thatched roof so kids can swim in the heat of the day without getting burned. This is a family friendly resort on a few levels, although easily half the guests don’t have kids.
Some may be wondering why we are going across Australia so fast. We are several days ahead of the schedule I wrote ahead of time. Well, we are trying to get out of the way of the Wet season up North. That, by the way, is why we went counterclockwise (Cairns–east Jesus-Perth-cities you’re heard of-Cairns) instead of clockwise. If there were delay or extra days, I wanted to spend them on the front end of the trip. The last thing I would want is to try to cross the North with the pressure of a flight ahead of me while Typhoon Shiela bears down on us. Within 48 hours of driving through Fitzroy Crossing (in the Kimberly, between Kununurra and Broome), it flooded and was impassable. 500 km before that, trucks are advised not to take the Wyndham turnoff because of flooding. Now that I am below the jungle, I am (mostly) out of mother nature’s path.
Next up: full day in Monkey Mia
We rose with sunrise, got some food and got on our way at 7am. We passed the turnoffs for Exmouth (which has some cool stuff) and just got on our way to Monkey Mia. Along with crossing below the Tropic of Capricorn, we went through one legit town in the first 7 hours, Carnarvon. Carnarvon has a big jetty, but even better it has a big grocery store. We’ve restocked the eskie and we moved on to Shark Bay.
Shark Bay is simply amazing. It is a shallow, warm bay with …sharks (bull, tiger, hammerhead, and several that don’t eat humans) as well as a lot of shells and a lot of dolphins. The first thing we came to were stromatolites (sort of a pre-coral). I had planned to skip the stromatolites, since I thought they were 30km off the road, but they were only 5 km off the road. I’m glad I went. These were among the first life forms as earth cooled (cooled from a big volcano, not cooled from ice ages) and they gave earth the starter capital of oxygen that led to our development. It really is humbling to know that you are in the one place that most resembles earth 3 million years ago with the little creatures that gave us the oxygen we needed to develop. Several died from the sea level lowering over the past millennium (those are the dry photos), but they continue to pump out oxygen and I thank them for that. While at the stromatolites, we met a German couple from Mainz with a little child. Alex said hi and we were on our way.We then passed the turnoff for the loop that goes out along the outer banks to the salt mine. The name of this dirt track is “Useless Loop”. Needless to say, we skipped it. This would make a great photo if they made a good sign for it, but the sign is small and understated.
Next, we got to Shell Beach, named after the mollusks not the oil company. The entire beach is shells and just as I said in my WA preview, it was a lot like cheeseless pizza (yeah that’s different…but what’s the point?). Alex could stand in one place for about 20 seconds before saying “owwie”. (Aside – yes, the Indian Ocean really is that colorful)We drove past a shark oceanarium. Not sure if it will be open on the way back through, but we’ll check it out then. We were so close we just wanted to get there. Denham looked nice enough – nice waterfront park & playground – but we hurried up and got to Monkey Mia.
Monkey Mia is awesome. Our room is in front of a stand of palm trees overlooking the water. We can see the dolphin interaction area from our room. We went in the water already and Alex is loving it. Talk about well-thought-out, the pool is mostly covered with a thatched roof so kids can swim in the heat of the day without getting burned. This is a family friendly resort on a few levels, although easily half the guests don’t have kids.
Some may be wondering why we are going across Australia so fast. We are several days ahead of the schedule I wrote ahead of time. Well, we are trying to get out of the way of the Wet season up North. That, by the way, is why we went counterclockwise (Cairns–east Jesus-Perth-cities you’re heard of-Cairns) instead of clockwise. If there were delay or extra days, I wanted to spend them on the front end of the trip. The last thing I would want is to try to cross the North with the pressure of a flight ahead of me while Typhoon Shiela bears down on us. Within 48 hours of driving through Fitzroy Crossing (in the Kimberly, between Kununurra and Broome), it flooded and was impassable. 500 km before that, trucks are advised not to take the Wyndham turnoff because of flooding. Now that I am below the jungle, I am (mostly) out of mother nature’s path.
Next up: full day in Monkey Mia
1 comment:
Aaaah! Thanks for posting all the Alex pictures - the liitle fellow looks sooo happy! It warms my heart! Remember his proshtapulnik? (for the non-Bulgarians out there, that's the party we give a baby when they start to walk and at which we ask them to select an object that would signify the career they'll choose one day). Alex picked up a colorful map of the globe and we declared that one day he would become "A great adventurer and a world traveller"..... Who knew that day will come so soon... Think about it - born to an inter-continental couple bound togehter by a shared desire to see the world and bridge cultural differences, Alex is destined to make this World his playground. At the age of two, he's traveled to various countires on three continents and bunch of islands! I better call the National Geographic and tell them to start planning his show.. maybe "A world to be discovered: a toddler's adventures out and about"?
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