Shark Bay area

After leaving Carnarvon we were on our way to Monkey Mia to see the Dolphins, we arrived in good time at Hamelin Homestead for a 2 night stay as we wanted to go to Steep Point (most westerly point of Australia) It rained that night so the road out was closed to Steep Point, so maybe next time. 

Hamelin Homestead Station Stay

That afternoon we went to see the Stromatolites, Hamelin Telegraph Station and the shell quarry. We had a very interesting afternoon. The Telegraph Station has a caravan park but I would not like to stay there as it was old & grotty looking. The Telegraph was first built in 1884, from here we did the 3.5 km walk to the Stromatolites via the shell block quarry, these blocks were used to build the early buildings in Denham.

Hamelin Telegraph Station 

Shell brick quarry @ Telegraph Station

The shell blocks are made from the Coquina Shells that have washed onto the beach and made Coquina Limestone over thousands of years. This limestone has been cut into blocks and many buildings in the area are made from it.

Stromatolites at Telegraph Station Beach

The Stromatolites are colonies of micro-organisms that resemble the oldest and simplest forms of life found on earth around 3.5 billion years ago. The Stromatolites grow in Hamelin Pool because of the extreme salinity of the water.

Stromatolites beach at Telegraph Station 

Hamelin Station Homestead 

We returned to our camp site for a rest and happy hour in the camp kitchen with a great fire and good company. The next day we headed up the 100 odd km's to Monkey Mia to see the Dolphins. The caravan park at Monkey Mia is very poor but the Dolphins were great. We lined up at 7.45 am like a lot of other people to see them, they might be wild but very well trained to turn up at the right time, swim around a bit then leave at the correct time.

Dolphins at Monkey Mia

Nicky the dolphin checking us out

We decided to do a cruise out to the pearl farm and got the best look at the Dolphins of the day, racing the yatch, leaping out of the water it was wonderful to watch, better than the controlled show at the beach.

Dolphin leaping

The pearl farm was interesting and we got a very good look at how this farm works, then a ride back on the work boat as the Aristocat 2 had gone on with the rest of the cruise.

Pearl Farm

Sunset at Monkey Mia

2 nights at Monkey Mia was enough so we went to Denham to see what might be there.  As I mentioned earlier we had hoped to go to Steep Point but as it had rained the road was closed as to with the Ocean Park. We did have a great drive out to Francois Peron NP, we only went as far as the homestead as the road from there was very sandy and it is the first time we have seen a tyre deflate and inflate station on a track in a National park, but of course there is always some nut that goes in without letting down there tyres, 2 girls in a wicked van. The track is 4x4 only and well signed posted.

Francois Peron Homestead

The big attraction here is the hot artesian pool was really good and we had a nice soak after our picnic lunch and a walk around the shearing shed and yards.

Hot Tub at Francois Peron Homestead

Ian taking photo of ant hill

On leaving Denham we headed toward Kalbarri, along the way we stopped at a look out and what did we see, little ant hills Ian just had to take a photo of them.

The Ant hill that Ian was photographing

We also stopped at Shell Beach, yes all shells no sand, the home of the Hamelin Cockle and there are heaped up to 10m thick and form a beach up to 1 km wide it is amazing to see.

Shell Beach

Free camp 444 on the Murchison River

About 3pm we arrived at our preferred free camp on the Murchison River for the night only to meet up with friends from Denham, we made the wind break for the fire, we had a lovely night with Graeme, Yvonne, Paul and Bev. There were caravans, motor homes, motor bikes and 5 th wheelers every where.

Murchison River free camp, very busy place

In the morning we left and went to Kalbarri for a few days, so I will tell you more about that in the next edition of the blog.
Cheers for now, Marilyn and Ian