Watching Wild Dolphins In Shark Bay!

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On the road by 8am today on the first leg of our mega journey up to Monkey Mia.  First port of call was Geraldton which was around 300km north of Cervantes.  We needed to call into here to have a crack repaired on our windscreen - we can recommend O'Briens who were fab.  Next stop was at Northampton which is the tiniest town but could we hell as like find the ATM - must have asked 3 or 4 people - they keep that thing well hidden.

We did intend on staying the night at the Overlander Roadhouse but still felt a little awake so kept going and found Hamlin Pool which has a small telegraph station which has a camping ground. Really nice, friendly place with a really relaxed attitude.  The site was right on the beach with the most amazing sunsets.  This area is famous for its 'shell bricks'.  Basically, the early settlers used to cut bricks out of the compacted shell and build  with them.  The compacted shell is very unique to this area and they still cut the bricks today but use them only to repair preexisting buildings.

not allowed to touch them or go into the water further up than your knees

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Next day we were up with the larks for the final part of our drive to Monkey Mia which was around 135km away.  We had heard that they feed the dolphins there three times a day between 8.30am and 1pm.  They only give the dolphins here a very small percentage of their daily food intake so they still remember how to hunt their own food.

When we arrived they had just fed them for the second time and we really thought we were going to be unlucky.  We gawped at the sea for a long time, admired the huge Pelicans, then went for a drink before spotting a fin in the water.  One fin quickly became three and they were coming into the shore with quite a pace.  Wow, what an amazing experience.  They come just about right up to you but you are not allowed to touch them or go into the water further up than your knees.  They swan up to Lee and I and posed for quite a few photos.  Amazing to see!

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Decided to stop at Denham tonight which is the most Westerly town in Australia and really pretty.  They have a few sharks around here so they had a special swimming area for humans on the beach which had a safety gating around it.  Lots of BBQ areas on the sea front which make this a very sociable place to live.