We honestly weren't planning on stopping at Monkey Mia (pronounced my-a). On reflection we would call it the "tall poppy syndrome", the good old Australian way of bringing down Australia's shining stars… we had numerous people tell us how over-rated the place was, not worth going to, how the dolphins are put on 'show' and basically exploited. And we wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for the fact that we didn't see the dolphins come in at Bunbury at the 'Dolphin Interpretive Centre' and how disappointing that was.
What you don't hear is that seeing the dolphins is just a small part of the experience. Monkey Mia is in Shark Bay, which is one of only a handful of special regions in the world to meet the criteria for World Heritage Listing. Shark Bay is home to an extensive range of rare marine life including dugong, manta rays, turtles, whales and dolphins. The bay area is flanked by a dramatic and beautiful array of coastline, red sea cliffs, white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. The bay region also has the largest number and area of seagrass species in the world.
Our first stop was Hamelin Pool and Marine and Nature reserve. Here the living fossils called "stromatolites" dot the shore of the pool in big rocky lumps, they are cartoonised as a creature called "stumpy". The kids loved seeing all the "stumpy's" everywhere, it really brought it to their level. Stromatolites are colonies of micro-organisms that resemble the oldest and simpliest forms of life on earth around 3.5 billion years ago. These ones though are just babies at only 3000 years old! It was fascinating and extremely hot here (around 39 deg!!)
Next stop was Denham. We were planning on staying here because we had been told by numerous people that you dont stay at Monkey Mia (although was never told the reason why?) but something just made us call the Monkey Mia resort and we were very pleasantly suprised that there rates were actually cheaper for a powered site than anywhere we had been on our whole trip to date! So we couldn't resist. And we are so glad we did. It was the most awesome place to stay. After we had set up we had a wander on the beach and onto the jetty. The next thing we looked down and saw a green turtle swimming below us. I was ecstatic. I have loved turtles even since I was little (and had a pretty extensive turtle collection!) so to see one swimming in the wild was amazing. (see the photo on our pictures). Then we saw two dolphins in the shallows, our first dolphins. Then another turtle, a crab and a big pink snapper. For our first night we were blown away and thought if we weren't staying here we would have missed it all.
The next morning we made it to the beach by 7.30 and there the dolphins were waiting in the shallows. Wild dolphins have been visiting the beach since the early 1960's and there are actually only five female dolphins who get fed three times a day at random times when they come to the shore. These are the offspring of the previous dolphins who have been fed, so they have been coming from a young age with their mothers. The dolphin feeding is very carefully controlled, they run through strict rules about your interaction with the dolphins but it is done in an easy going way and we got to feel a part a the whole experience. When it comes to feeding time they get everyone to stand out of the water and have three people spread along the crowds who have the buckets with the fish and pick out around 5 people each to come out into the water and feed the dolphin in front of them. And we were stoked when they picked Emshia and Rory to feed "Surprise" the dolphin in front of us! It was magical. As it worked out the next feed happened straight after the first and Mark was then chosen to feed a dolphin too! So overall it was a fabulous experience for us all. One we would highly recommend to anyone.
The previous night we had seen a brochure for a cruise on a catamaran to see the wildlife in the ocean. It looked totally amazing and thought we would have no chance on getting 4 spots, that they would be booked out weeks ahead. Thought we would go in and see and next thing found ourselves on a 2 and a half hour "Wildlife Experience" cruise and booked in for an "Extreme Sundown Sail" later that night! We were just pinching ourselves with disbelief. The boat was amazing, we were all just wandering over it at our leisure, and we got to see two dugongs, about 6 dolphins, a sea snake and the amazing big loggerhead turtles. It was awesome.
That afternoon, we had a snorkel in the ocean and saw a large stingray and Mark got within reaching distance of a friendly dolphin, couldn't believe our eyes!
The next day we drove up to Cape Peron in the Francois Peron National Park, right next to Monkey Mia. We were planning on camping out in the Park but the heat was so intense we changed our mind pretty quickly. It was a 4WD only track and we had some fun in the deep red sand but made it through safely. Our highlight in the NP was a viewing platform called 'Skipjack Point'. From here we looked down into the shallows and saw sharks, turtles, rays, it was like being in a glass bottomed boat. We felt so priviledged to witness this amazing array of marine life.
The other highlight of our stay at Monkey Mia was the two nightly talks we attended (they are on every night of the week) in the conference room. The Shark Bay area is a haven for scientists and researchers who are studying the marine life in the Bay, listening to dolphins, tagging turtles, studying tiger sharks and tracking dugongs to name but a few. Each night they hold a talk, and we were lucky enough to listen about the 'Marine Life in Shark Bay' and the 'Turtles in Shark Bay'. Our presenter was from Canada and is doing his PhD on the Turtles in Shark Bay and it was like having our own National Geographic expert!
The pity about these talks is that hardly any people went. Most tourists who come to Monkey Mia come the night before to see the dolphins in the morning and then they are off again that day. They are so missing out on the wide array of amazing marine life Shark Bay has to offer. We have to say being at Monkey Mia has been the highlight of our trip to date and we would encourage anyone to go, but make sure you stay a few days, and see for yourself that there is so much more to see than just the dolphins!
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