Monkey Mia

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After almost a full day on the road on the bus we hit the next interesting area, Shark Bay.

First stop was Hamelin Pool where there are some colonies of bacteria called stromatolites that have thrived in the highly concentrated salt water. This doesn't sound very exciting but this things are actually responsible for creating the atmosphere that allowed life to develop on earth. These stromatolites were the first creatures to thrive in large numbers on the planet and over millions of years they pumped huge quantities of oxygen into the atmosphere, which ultimately allowed more advanced forms of life to develop. Today, there are only two places in the world where you can see stromatolites - here and in the Bahamas. Though they are of huge scientific importance, they are not particularly amazing to look at - basically just rocks lying in the water.

Breakfast time for dolphins

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Next stop was the gorgeous Shell Beach, a huge expanse of little white cockle shells, before we headed into Denham for the night.

In the morning we headed to Monkey Mia for the dolphin feeding. This is the place where wild dolphins have been coming into the shallows to be fed every morning for the last thirty years. We had heard that this would be a bit of a circus so our expectations were pretty low as we arrived on the beach.

In fact we were pleasantly surprised. There were not many people in the water and the conservation officers regulated the feeding exercise well. These days they control how much they feed the dolphins so that they never become dependant on the human interaction. Everyone stood in the water in a line and the dolphins came up close and had a good look at us. You are not allowed to touch the dolphins but a few people were pulled out of the line to feed them.

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After the feeding exercise was completed I then had a little run-in with a pelican. The stupid bird seemed to take exception to have his photo taken and headed straight for me, flapping its wings before retreating. After that I was quite glad to get back on the bus heading north.