Western Australia 3

Dolphin being fed at Monkey Mia
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Time is travelling on as fast as we are. Today we drive to monkey Mia (pronounced Mya) through some very isolated areas. We saw one sign saying next services 148Km !! which makes you think a bit more about petrol and food and loos and water and sleep ... the rocks are still very red as is the earth between the plants. SOme areas are quite dense bush between the trees and some dry areas have scrubby bushes mostly grey apparently dead some purple. We caught sight of one small group of emu but life is not very obvious even the bugs are far apart. There are even fewer birdsof prey which says the same thing. We stopped at a road house for a cup of coffee (wanoo billabong) at 12.30 (Temp=42C). Drove to thte Hamelin Pool where the best colony of stromatolies is to be found still living after 3500 million years quite extraordinary. We passed the 26th parallel outside Denham and later a little lagoon with a kite surfer with a kite the same beautiful blue as the lake. We stopped at Denham for money and petrol - it's a relaly pleasant in the middleof nowhere with the usual heat wind and red earth. Monkey Mia was at the end of the road where we booked into a nice little chalet. Goodness it is HOT here helped by strong wind and lots of beer etc. We swam (Wow) and saw pelicans. Tomorrow we get up early (joke) and see the dolphins with luck.

Red, white and blue landscape of Western Australia
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On Sunday we really did get up at 7.30 to watch the dolphins getting fed. What an experience. Of course we took the wrong camea and the battery ran out - what can you expect if you don't plan.... We stood at the edge of the water and the helpers told us about the programme. 4 or 5 of the adult females get fed only. All the babies and most of the others do not get a look in. The males are off doing other things like herding chosen females. To see the totally wild creatures coming close and interacting with people is truly so fabulous (beyond words). Mind you they had several years when they killed off young by allowing people into the water, overfeed the mothers and other unspeakable crimes. All this is behind them and a properly controlled feeding programme is in place allowing both species a good look at each other. We took a cruise on a catamaran to visit a pearl farm (magic) and out to sea where we were lucky (again!!!) - we saw dolphin playing in the bow wave, tiger shark, dugong, manta rays, sea snake (ugh) flying fish and flying garfish (driven by a serious need to escape something big).

We swam and wandered the beach snoozed and ate and drank (God what a life in this little paradise).

So far OZ has struck us as an awesome place with little life apart from humans, the colours are red and blue, gray and green. It is hot and windy and quite alien but very beautiful.