We arrived in Denham after a long drive from Coral Bay, on route we had stopped for Lunch with some of the other guys in Carnarvon. Carnarvon seemed to be a very purposeful town with the fruit plantations being the main employers in the area. Suzie had tried to do some fruit picking the day before and found it hard work and very unrewarding as the farmer wanted to pay cash in hand which would mess up her employment terms on her working visa.
Denham was a small and laid back town with a couple of fishing boats just off shore and fish filleting stations along the shore for the fishermen to work their magic on their catch. This was a good place to base ourselves for the next couple of days for our visits to Monkey Mia and Francois National Park. The town has a couple of restaurants but we plumped for the Old Pearler Restaurant which was built from bricks made of seashells. The food was good as was the company and we settled in for some beers when we got back, with some of the other guys in the dorm. We met some Ozzies, and Dieter and Wendy from Belgium. Everyone was a good laugh and we had a great couple of days in the dorm.
Monkey Mia was an exciting little adventure as we headed to see the dolphins. The dolphins were very friendly and came close enough that a couple of chosen individuals could feed the dolphins some fish. We couldn't wade into the water however as one of the dolphins had a new born and they can be defensive of newborns (I suspect must Mums would be!!). On the last feed there were just 4 people near me and I reckoned that we could have all fed the dolphins as each dolphin is fed 5 fish. The first person decided to completely ignore the instructions of the guide and pat the dolphin on the head. The dolphins sonar sensors are in the top of its head. So it was equivalent of hitting someone over the back of head with a spade and pretty much left the dolphin looking like he had had 10 pints of Stella followed by 10 whiskey chasers. Needless to say the dolphin didn't fancy much more fun with the overly "friendly" humans for the day!!! After lunch we jumped on a boat with the Belgium dorm mates and went for a cruise on a very cool catamarann. On this trip we managed to see some dugongs ( http://www.reelearth.org.nz/modules/content/images/image/87_dugong.jpg ). These are an endangered specie and so I was honoured to see these amazing creatures in the wild. The boat followed these around and when they were not spotting wildlife I lay on the web netting just above the water between the hulls and chilled!!!
Francois Peron National park was a tour we did in a 4x4 as it was pretty inaccessible. We had a great time and visited some good spots looking down on the coast. From there we were able to spot Manta Rays, a couple of sharks, loads of turtles, and a lot of it maybes which were very much like the murky shadows seen in Coral Bay!!! At the Peron homestead (local farm) we learnt the original homestead had been in the local town, but was moved as the sheepshearers were more keen on beer than shearing sheep. The morning would start with a full compliment of shearers ( http://blog.umbro.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Alan-Shearer-Red-Celebration.jpg ), and at each morning/afternoon break and lunchtime they would steadily loose the crew, and at the end of the day be lucky to have anyone working. After 10 years of trying to contain the drinking the answer was to move the farm!!!!!!
Off to Kalbarri tomorrow as we start the final run in to Perth, so will be looking forward to being company to a couple of backpacks, cool bags and food bags in the back of the car for the next two days!!
No comments:
Post a Comment