More Monkey Mia - Feb 6

Summary: Drama Queen, dolphin feeding, cruising Shark Bay

There we were – in Shark Bay, surrounded by dorsal fins. It was dawn and we know that sharks do much of their feeding at dawn and dusk, but it was shallow water, we thought we had nothing to worry about. Yet there we were, right at the center of a feeding frenzy.

We were right, they were the dolphins we were expecting to feed. We got up with sunrise and caught a couple dolphin feedings. It is really cool – there is a pod of 13 dolphins that comes in and feeds (in part or in full) three times a day in the mornings. At the first feeding, there were 5 dolphins, at the second, there were all 13. Alex got to hand a fish to the matriarch of the pod, Nicky. Yeah, “frenzy” was a strong word, the dolphins are wild, but they know the drill. They mill around while the wildlife folks give a talk and then they are fed a few fish. This is something like the 4th generation of dolphins to do this. There are something like 900 dolphins in Shark Bay and exactly 13 know about this. And guess who joined us at the feeding? Our German couple (the wife’s name is also Alex) and their child Mika (fans of the movie Eurotrip will appreciate that). Very cool folks to chat with. They were heading south today, but I would not be at all surprised if we bump into them again in Perth or the southwest corner of WA.

After the feedings, we got on a catamaran and went for a cruise of Shark Bay. Alex loved it. He had been talking about the boats from the moment we got to the beach (and during the feedings). On the boat, he ensured that it was not relaxing as he ran around and around the moving boat. Part of the tour, we went to a pearl farming operation. Pretty interesting how pearls are in fact seeded in the oysters’…umm… genitalia. Ouch. Then they pull it out and put in a second, larger seed. No thanks. Alex loved the cruise and the pearling tour and then dozed off in the last half hour. Meanwhile, I spoke to a couple of young Brits who had moved to Perth short term for work, but were thinking about making it longer term (revisiting a theme here). They were not “a couple” but knew each other from this program and both found the economy and the change of pace in Australia appealing.

We did some more swimming in both the pool and the ocean and we were done for the day. Note: there are still no waves in the ocean, but that will change in Perth and points south.

Next up: dolphin morning, drive to Perth