Shark Bay

Over the weekend Shane, Bronson and I spent three nights in Shark Bay. Shark Bay is an 8 hour drive north of Perth – a rather ambitious trip for three nights but that’s where we wanted to go so that’s where we went.

Shark Bay is not a bay per say but a World Heritage area consisting of two peninsulas. The southern peninsula is accessible only by an unpaved road. This road is appropriately named Useless Loop. Only a salt and gypsum mine resides on the peninsula producing the purest grade sea salt in the world. If you can handle the two plus hour drive on gravel road then camping and fishing are available by permit at Steep Point.  Shane seems to think we'll be making a trip there after the holidays.

We stayed in Denham, the only town on Peron peninsula to the north – population 1,500 and the western most town in Australia. A twenty minute drive from Denham on the opposite side of the peninsula is Monkey Mia – a small resort and famous spot for feeding and interacting with wild dolphins. In the 1960’s local fisherman began feeding the dolphins. Ever since then, the dolphins have come to the same beach to be fed by the people. Disclaimer: uncomplicated and unrefined does not support feeding wildlife but it seems to work at Monkey Mia and is a pretty amazing example of the relationship between wildlife and humans.

I’ve always associated Shark Bay with Monkey Mia as it has a bit of a reputation for attracting overseas tourists wanting to interact with the dolphins. I was delighted to discover that it’s an area with a special history and unique wildlife.

At the end of Useless Loop lies Dirk Hartog Island – an 80km island and the largest island in WA. It houses an eco-tourism resort accessible by plane. Dirk Hartog (great name) was a Dutch captain who landed on the island in 1616 when his ship was blown off course. He decided it was inhabitable so nailed a pewter plate to a tree proclaiming he was there and went on his merry way. In 1697 another Dutch captain, William de Vlamingh, landed on the island and replaced Hartog’s plate with his own. William spent some time exploring the west coast of Australia and the existence of any Dutch settlers is a mystery to this day. Some say there are aboriginals with Dutch ancestry running through their veins. It wasn’t until 1770 that Captain James Cook landed on the east coast, outside of Sydney, and the first British settlement began in 1778 - over one hundred years from when the Dutch first landed on the west coast.

Shark Bay’s history dates back much further than the 17th century. Hamelin Pool which sits at the base of Peron Peninsula is one of only three places in the world where living marine stromatolites exist – the other two are in the Bahamas. Stomatolites are one of the earliest forms of life on Earth – their existence dating back over 3 billion years. The high salt content of Hamelin Pools allows them to continue to thrive. And I can’t help but think that the lack of human contact in this area also plays a role in their survival.

The high salt content of the ocean can also be thanked for beautiful Shell Beach where Shane stands in the photo up top. This beach is made of trillions of tiny shells named the Hamelin Cockle which wash up and form piles up to 10m thick on an amazing beach that is several kilometers long and at points 1km wide.

In case I haven’t convinced you that Shark Bay is a magical place, it’s also home to Blue Lagoon Pearl Farm.

But possibly my favorite part of Shark Bay is the amazing wildlife. We had the opportunity to watch a father Emu (the dad rears the young) and his 14 chicks navigate their way through the bush and cross the two lane road.

 

All I wanted to see on this trip was a Dugong and after 7 hours at sea we finally saw one as we were heading in for the day. Dugongs (which you may know as Manatees) are the world’s only marine mammal herbivore and an amazing 10% of the world’s population lives in Shark Bay.  I was too mesmerized and he was too sneaky for me to capture anything on camera aside from the tip of his tail.

I’m fortunate to have a husband with a particularly keen ability to spot wildlife that I would otherwise miss. “Look, there’s an eagle, a snake, an emu, a roo (kangaroo), a hawk, a goat, a fox, a racehorse lizard, a sea turtle, a ray, a dugong, a school of fish” And we saw all of these in Shark Bay. He’s like my own personal Crocodile Dundee. If only I looked like Linda Kozlowski in that one-piece thong swimsuit


fishing



Eagle Bluff