058 - Hamelin Station (Monkey Mia - 24/5/17)

Well here was a day that a certain little girl had been waiting for ever since, well, she learned that it was actually possible to feed dolphins in the ‘wild’ somewhere in Australia.

Ever since Evie chose Monkey Mia as her “spot” we’d all been counting down the days to this part of the trip. And after the raging success of the day trip to Mt Barker for James’ day, it had a lot to live up to… and it did not disappoint…

Up at Sparrow’s Fart O’clock we raced the sunrise across the land, stopping along the way for a couple of nice pics. One of the few perks of having a little Ninja like Sam is the ability to literally throw him up on the platform of the truck and get him to take an elevated shot over the scrub.

Ninja Skills - Shadowing onto rooftop - Check

And he doesn't take a too bad a shot either...

So we made it out to Monkey Mia without little fuss, a spritely 120km trek from where we were staying at Hamelin Station. But without a van on the back any trip seems spritely! As we were parking up at around 8.15am we saw a stream of people, notably backpackers, heading back out into the carpark. Surely we had missed the first of the three feedings?!? But alas we had. We had been advised that first feeding was around 8.30am-ish, but really it was up to the dolphins and when they turned up. Unsurprisingly, as I would, they turned up for their free feed earlier than we hoped.

Damn...now we down a chance to get Evie chosen to feed the dolphins. For those not in the know, people are usually chosen at random to feed them and with only  a limited amount of fish and dolphins, the %’s can often be low if there is a big crowd. We had warned Evie this, but told her if she behaved, smiles lots, did her hair and basically crossed everything she had, she might get lucky.

We strolled onto the beach just as the 2^nd feeding was starting (they are spaced around 15min apart) so Evie took up her spot at the front of the beach with the rest of the crew. I heard the adjacent jetty was a good spot to watch the ‘action’ from so I headed up there with the big camera and zoom lens to hopefully capture the moment from a different angle… From my estimation there was around 50 people at this session, so I thought she was in with a chance. Apparently there was around 140 at the first session!

…And here’s what happened…

Evie just a little excited about the dolphins...

The crowd forming for the second feeding...

The Ranger explaining about the history of dolphins in the area and some facts about the dolphins themselves. On one hand I get what they are trying to do, but on the other hand I find it slightly hypocritical. Telling people not to feed dolphins as it upsets the natural balance and behaviour. 

And then go and feed them...

Anyhow though, I'll park that conversation as that's for another time. This is Moo's Day.

Getting pretty excited to see them...

After being told that dolphins can see just as well above the water as they can below, Evie did what only she would think to do... she waved to them to say hi! She's a pure soul...

And then she got chosen to feed a dolphin! Oh the relief!

Being handed the fish and then...

...feeding the dolphin! Bucket list check!

Following the end of the session we headed back to the car for breakfast only to find B had forgotten to pack the bowls for breakfast cereals!! Not to worry, we just shifted lunch forward to breakfast and would worry about lunch later on. Perhaps dinner for lunch? Jam sanga’s for brekkie! What a treat.

Back on to the beach for the 3^rd and final session, there were even few people than before and the boys were lucky enough to get picked for feeding, but only after the gentlemen next to them passed on the offer. Obviously the female volunteer had the hots for this attractive man (no it wasn’t me, although I understand your misunderstanding) and was trying to impressive. He had also been chosen earlier in the morning… That’s Blue Steel good looking….

Not quite the fanfare for the boys, but they were pretty excited too. Although it's safe to say James was a little nervy about it all.

Spotted this guy on our tour around...

OK... so you could say I nailed this animal shot. 3 dolphins in formation and a turtle!

All things aside, it's a pretty impressive bit of coastline.

Now one of the perks of having such an early start was that after all the excitement of the dolphin feeding, it wasn’t even at morning tea time!! So much of the day left, and we’d already ticked off the red letter event.

So we decided we’d head out to Peron Homestead, located on the gateway to the Francois Peron National Park to have a look. It was a working sheep station and the ‘relics’ that remain give a great insight into the workings of the people of the peninsula in making a living.

Moo rocking the Akubra just a little bit too much I reckon...

Designers clearly have a future in Asset Management.

A funny tale associated with the Station. Probably not the first pub to cause issues with employers.

The highlight of the station though was the ‘Hot Tub’ fed heated bore water direct from the Artesian bore located some 540m below the surface. We’d thankfully packed the togs (fairly standard thing these days) so decided we’d go for a morning dip…

Good to see they've got the pool fence up. As a side note, quite a nice spot for a BBQ or casual gathering if you were so inclined.

The water was already brown before we got in!

It was hot. But very cool. If you catch my drift.

Oh wow… what an experience. Felt so good and was relaxed for most of the day from it.

And yep.. it was ‘ot. I was roastin’

But it was uniquely brilliant.

After only 10min, as that’s all we could tolerate between the water and the direct sunlight, we dried off and headed into Denham for a special bakery lunch for Moo’s Day. And whilst it wasn’t a patch on Mt Barker’s Bakery, the pies were pretty good. Made even better with a play on a very impressive pirate themed playground afterwards.

The quality of playgrounds and parks in WA continues to astound me...

Kicking on we’d decided that splash out and attend the Ocean Park Aquarium we’d seen the signs for on the way into Denham. Something that wasn’t really on the radar originally, we were swayed by online reviews and how glad we were to listen to them. For me, it was nearly the most rewarding and interesting tour/museum we’d done on the trip. Undertaken by qualified marine biologists who managed to team knowledge with personality (quite difficult to find in a guide we’ve found...) it was just flat out cool.

I was really proud of the way the kids interacted with the guide when she asked questions to the group, answering where they’d picked up knowledge from elsewhere. Sam’s interest in shark’s came to the fore (he’s had a large shark book at home for a while) and he jumped in with most answers before people could get a word in edgeways. Quite un-Sam-like, but quietly I was proud as punch.

Talking to our guide at the end, it turns out that she was from Barry Island in Wales (B had picked up on the accent during the tour) so it was nice to have a little bit of Welsh familiarity thrown in there.

If you look carefully, just in front of James' right arm, you'll see Nemo. Yep... no wonder he was hard to find in the entire ocean.

The Shark feeding was pretty cool. This big girl was called Linda, and she was one of a couple of lemon sharks they had. Not really dangerous, but still, you didn't want to dip a toe in the water...

Here's Linda just cruising around in her pond.

There are 4 stone fish in this shot. See if you can spot them. I'll give you a hint... they look like stones.

This fella took a penchant for James' finger and I warned Bob to watch where he put his hands or he might lose a digit!

Even the carpark was impressive....

Finally on to Shell Beach on the way home, something I hadn’t heard much about previously. Once again, another example of the Australian descriptive naming conventions, Shell Beach is made up entirely of shells, or remnants there off. The water in the bay next to the beach is hyper-saline due to some freakish environmental occurrences (no freshwater inflows and large sand banks and reed beds preventing backflow) and it was only these shell organisms that had found a way to live in the waters in the area. As you can imagine… they thrived with no predators!

Either way, difficult to make sand castle but a very unique place nevertheless, and salt residue left after wading in the water was almost powder like.

Shells. More shells than you've ever seen in your life.

Yep... that's all shells.

We headed back and sparked another fire, and realised that our new neighbours at the Station were in fact a travelling family that we’d seen at the Aquarium and Shell Beach. A few jokes were had about stalking each other, but it was great see another family out and about with us.

And so ended “Evie’s Day”. And another pearler it was. Perhaps B and I should really just sit back and let the kids point at the map and decide where we should go… What I was only expecting to be a corporatised feeding frenzy of a day turned out to be a massive day full of unique experiences we could never have expected.

Well done Moo. It was a day deserving of such a beautiful, energetic, eclectic and unique young lady.