Week commencing 04.10.2010
Monday 04.10.10 – With our new buddies, The Two B’s, Bev & Bernie we went on a day trip to Cape Peron.
Peron Heritage Precinct – Located in the National Park , provides an insight into how life was when the park was a working sheep station. Peron National Park only became a National Park in 1990 when the sheep station lease was up. The National Park covers 52,500 hectares of the northern most tip of the Peron Peninsula. The park offers a unique experience of unusual wildlift amnd dramatic landscapes. Animals found in the area include the thorny devil, euros, thick-billed grass wrens, fairy-wrens, racehorse goannas and emus. Dugong, manta rays, sharks, fish and turtles are frequently seen from the cliffs of Cape Peron. The coastal scenery and shrubland with its Spinifex sandplains and gypsum claypans called birriadas, are a remarkable sight. We were lucky enough to see the following: goanns, emus, sharks, manta rays, fish and turtles. Unbelievable – it was a great day. We shared a lovely lunch on the beach at Bottle Bay.

Dugongs – It is estimated that up to 14,000 or 10% of the world’s dugong population thrive in the Shark Bay Marine Park. Extremely shy, these large docile marine mammals form one of the largest herds still in existence. Protected from hunting, dugongs are slow swimmers – grow to about 3.3 metres and weigh an average of 250kg. Associated with mermaid myth due to its fluked tail and scientific name ‘sirenia’ (latin siren-enchantress) the dugong is endangered in most of the world.
Little Lagoon – This tranquil waterway is a natural nursery for whiting, plus a fantastic swimming area. It is just 3km from Denham.
Tuesday 05.10.10 – Once again we are spending the day with The Two Bevs. Monkey Mia, so it is up very early to be at the beach by 8am. We arrive there around 7.40am and have to wait quietly on the verandah watching the dolphins swimming around waiting for the interaction and feeding. We are eventually invited to enter the water. Yes, there are about 200 people on the beach, out of these 200 people they choose four people to feed the dolphins. I am standing there thinking I am not going to be the lucky one. Guess what all my dreams come true, I have wanted to come to Monkey Mia for the past 30 years. Yes, I am chosen to feed the dolphin, who’s name is ‘Puck’ a 33 year old dolphin. My heart is racing as I turn to the lady beside me to look after my camera. (John had moved up to the jetty to get some shots of the dolphins) . Therefore he is able to get a shot of me feeding Puck. I am told to place the fish low in the water and the dolphin will take it from me. It was over so quick, but I will never forget this moment. Fantastic, I am still on a high , I feel so lucky to have been able to do this today.
Puck born 1 December 1976. Puck is the daughter of Crookedfin, one of the original Monkey Mia beach dolphins who started visiting the beach in the late 1970’s. Puck, like Nicky, is a regular visitor to the beach, but Puck is a more social dolphin and is well integrated into the Red Cliff Bay larger community of females. Members of the Puck family have a close bond and spend most of their time socialising and foraging together. Puck’s family is very skilled at rooster-tail foraging, which occurs in deeper water. They swim fast at the surface of the water leaving a trail and then back track on the dive down to catch their prey. It is unclear what type of prey they are hunting. Puck has had eight calves. Her first three calves died while still very young. Her first calf died at a few days old, before it was named. Puck’s first calf to survive to weaning was Piccolo (06.12.1992). Piccolo is now a regular visitor to the beach and became a member of the beach interaction program in 2004. In 2003, Puck became a grandmother when Piccolo had her first calf Eden (20.11.2003) Puck’s next calf, Kiya (13.12.1997) was attacked by a shark in 1999 but survived with an impressive scar the size of a dinner plate on the left side of her body. Puck’s other surviving calves are India (07.05.2004) and Samu (12.12.2009) Samu is still being nursed by Puck.

After an exciting morning, we enjoyed lunch on the lovely grassed area of the resort.
On our return to the caravan park, the winds has picked up and we pulled down the awning ready for our departure tomorrow. The winds gusts are up around 64kms an hour. We have spent the evening in the van. Not nice being in a caravan when the winds are howling like they are tonight.
Wednesday 06.10.10 – Not as blowy this morning but we are both happy to be leaving. As we drove along the road we had to stop as the Emu with his chicks were attempting to cross the road. When they saw us approaching they turned and headed into the scrub. We arrived safely at the Murchison River Rest Area where we were spending the night. When we got out of the car we were attacked by flies, seemed like hundreds of them – out came the fly hats. Bev and Bernie’s friends were also camping here and invited us over for a drink before dinner. We had a great night with them and also another couple joined us at the camp fire.
Thursday 07.10.10 – Up early as we had decided to wash the van and the car while we at the free camp. With fly hats on, we worked hard for the next couple of hours, it felt great to see both vehicles reasonably clean. A job well done. We then drove on to Kalbarri, this was a pretty drive as we started to see fields of wheat. We settled into the caravan park, a nice spot on the hill overlooking the Murchison River. Judy, Al, Des & Franka are also camped here. We have had drinks with them each evening. We went for a long walk along the river to the mouth and it was great watching the boats going out to sea. Lots of children still here are holidays end tomorrow.
Friday 08.10.10 - We decided to do the walks along the Kalbarri National Park Cliffs. We walked about 3kms from Eagle Gorge and then turned back to the car. The walk takes you along the tops of the cliff looking down over the rugged coastline. We then drove to Natural Bridge and walked another 6kms to Shellhouse. It was very hot and yes lots of flies. We saw some amazing coastline. We stopped off at Pot Alley and saw some children playing on the rocks. At Jake’s Point we saw some surfers catching some great rides.

Saturday 09.10.10 - As this is Daddy’s day , John played his first game of golf since July. He had a successful day , won a nice bottle of red. He said the guys were really nice and made him welcome.