It’s Monday, the day after Easter today and it’s been a little harder than expected to find reliable internet access, so here is a summary of our adventures from the past few days.
On the road: we started in Geraldton on Friday morning, drove about 460kms to Denham, where we stayed for 3 nights, and today we drove from Denham to Carnarvon (330kms). We continue to be amazed by the wide open spaces of Western Australia. Indeed, the sparsely populated stretch from Perth to Geraldton is starting to look crowded compared to the open areas up here. It is not uncommon to be the only car on the road which stretches in a straight line for as far as we can see in front and behind. The isolation and distance between Western Australian towns is something that has to be experienced to truly understand.
Given all the driving we have gotten quite acquainted with our campervan which has been named “Mad Max”. Why? Clearly it is a male car and one that deserves a masculine if not macho name. “Max” is a good name and “Mad Max” is even cooler. It’s also homage to the famous Australian film which takes place in outback areas like where we currently find ourselves. With a bed and kitchen in the back it is serving well as a home away from home.
Denham is in the Shark Bay World Heritage area and is 25 km from Money Mia. The scenery is stunning; the lookout from Eagles Bluff and sunset from Denham lookout were magical. Really, all of it was beautiful (except for the townies in the local pub!) and we hope the pictures did it justice.
We saw plenty of animals in the Shark Bay area including: our first sighting of Emus in the wild; LOTS of dolphins; sea turtles; pelicans; a sea snake; and a few sting rays from a distance. At Monkey Mia a small number of female dolphins are feed from the shore and they come in very close with their young. We had dolphins within feet of us while we were knee deep in the water. J We also saw stromalites, which are pillars of blue-green algae that were one of the first life-forms on the planet (fossil record from 3.5 to 2.0 billion years). They only exist in very special conditions in a few places on the planet and Shark Bay is one of them. For the Biologist… this was cool.
Finally, the best story from the past few days… we saved a baby emu! The first ones we saw were a mother and two chicks. We stopped the car to take pictures and saw something was up with one of the chicks – it had its leg wrapped up in a wire fence. The poor thing was terrified as we approached, but we were able to gets is leg free and after a few tenuous steps we were happy to see it run away with no problem.
Tomorrow we are off to Coral Bay and then up to Exmouth –the Ningaloo Reef!! More stories to come.
Here are some pictures. Follow the below link or copy and paste it into your web browser.
On the road: we started in Geraldton on Friday morning, drove about 460kms to Denham, where we stayed for 3 nights, and today we drove from Denham to Carnarvon (330kms). We continue to be amazed by the wide open spaces of Western Australia. Indeed, the sparsely populated stretch from Perth to Geraldton is starting to look crowded compared to the open areas up here. It is not uncommon to be the only car on the road which stretches in a straight line for as far as we can see in front and behind. The isolation and distance between Western Australian towns is something that has to be experienced to truly understand.
Given all the driving we have gotten quite acquainted with our campervan which has been named “Mad Max”. Why? Clearly it is a male car and one that deserves a masculine if not macho name. “Max” is a good name and “Mad Max” is even cooler. It’s also homage to the famous Australian film which takes place in outback areas like where we currently find ourselves. With a bed and kitchen in the back it is serving well as a home away from home.
Denham is in the Shark Bay World Heritage area and is 25 km from Money Mia. The scenery is stunning; the lookout from Eagles Bluff and sunset from Denham lookout were magical. Really, all of it was beautiful (except for the townies in the local pub!) and we hope the pictures did it justice.
We saw plenty of animals in the Shark Bay area including: our first sighting of Emus in the wild; LOTS of dolphins; sea turtles; pelicans; a sea snake; and a few sting rays from a distance. At Monkey Mia a small number of female dolphins are feed from the shore and they come in very close with their young. We had dolphins within feet of us while we were knee deep in the water. J We also saw stromalites, which are pillars of blue-green algae that were one of the first life-forms on the planet (fossil record from 3.5 to 2.0 billion years). They only exist in very special conditions in a few places on the planet and Shark Bay is one of them. For the Biologist… this was cool.
Finally, the best story from the past few days… we saved a baby emu! The first ones we saw were a mother and two chicks. We stopped the car to take pictures and saw something was up with one of the chicks – it had its leg wrapped up in a wire fence. The poor thing was terrified as we approached, but we were able to gets is leg free and after a few tenuous steps we were happy to see it run away with no problem.
Tomorrow we are off to Coral Bay and then up to Exmouth –the Ningaloo Reef!! More stories to come.
Here are some pictures. Follow the below link or copy and paste it into your web browser.
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