Shark Bay World Heritage and Marine Park to Fremantle

Having inserting a new radiator in Carnavon, Trev was now running like a dream. We headed off for the tranquil waters of Shark Bay.

First stop was Shell Beach, a lovely white beach made up of tiny cockle shells, from a distance it looks like pure white sand. This beach seemed to go for ever and made for great pics.

From here we headed off towards the windy town of Denham, the most westerly town in Australia. We had good intentions of staying but due to the strong wind warning we poked on to Monkey Mia (on the other side on the Peron Peninsula), land of the great Grey Japanese Tunas commonly called dolphins.
We have recently changed the set up with Trev and now seem to be using the tent far more. It is cooler and a lot easier to set up things. We pitched the tent on a nice grassy area and headed off to have a look at things.
It is an interesting place with families and backpackers everywhere. Early night as Dolphin feeding was at 7.30 or so they said at reception.....well up at the crack of dawn and cameras in hand we headed down to the beach........7.30 my bum......was more like 8.30 but the dolphins did come in and was great to stand in the water right next to them.....few pics and was unlucky not to be picked to feed one of them, this went to a rather large American lady and as a result our view was blanketed but her bending over in front of us, dolphin feeding will never be the same.

With the strong wind warning still forecast for the whole coast we decided to press on. A quick detour in to Francois Peron NP and stopped to look at the old homestead and Big Lagoon.

From here we headed to Eagle Bluff lookout, a boardwalk along the cliff tops looking down at the clear waters below. Now we know why its called Shark Bay, you could see them cruising through one after another, we would have seen 20 sharks in about half an hour. Can only imagine how many we could have seen if the weather was a little calmer.

On the road again heading south to Kalbarri and the stopping at a view of the viewing platforms in Kalbarri NP overlooking the Murchison River which was in flood. As Kalbarri township is on this river the picturesque location was somewhat brown and murky. A real shame but we stopped at the mouth to watch a few fishermen catch a couple of small jew.

With the sun dropping quickly we proceeded south along the ruggered red clifftops, driving down the Indian Ocean Rd. This seems to be WA answer to the Great Ocean Rd in Vic.

As the sun set we drove towards Geraldton through the northern wheat belt, the countryside was somewhat bare as what little wheat they grew had been harvested. Was not a great season for them and many of the paddocks were empty. As most of this was on the coast it was interesting to see sand dunes and sheep in the same paddock. This area was one of the early rural settlements in WA and many of the old building are restored and used today.

Managed to find a nice little caravan park down near the port for the night.

The next morning we did a little drive around Geraldton, stopping in at the WA Museum where there is a large exhibit of shipwrecks from this coast as well as a section on HMAS Sydney. Was interesting to read all about the tragedy.

Heading further along the coast we dropped in to Dongara/Port Denison, major crayfish boat port. The coastline was just one small fishing port after another, all well worth a look at and very popular in school holidays for Perthsiders.

Next stop was the Nambung NP, home of the famous Pinnacles. This was an amazing place to visit, shifting sand dunes that reveal limestone pillars that look like termite nests in the desert. We drove through the middle of the park stopping for photos as we went.

Leaving here we made a B line for Perth and Fremantle, still with no fixed accommodation plans we thought that this should not be an issue. After Cindy spending an hour on the phone we ended up at a caravan park in the back of Fremantle. Was not all bad as we had a little time to drive around Fremantle, the place was packed and all the accom was full. Found out that it is like this all summer so those travelling this way, book first.