Shark Bay World Heritage Area

We rescued this little thorny devil from the middle of the track en
route to Shark Bay.  They're so funny - they just stand dead still.

After leaving Carnarvon we had a bush camp then headed south to the Shark Bay World Heritage area.  First stop was Hamelin Pool to see the 2-3000 year old stromatalites, ‘rocks’ which are actually a conglomerate of tiny organisms.  Hamelin Pool’s more than a pool, it looks like the sea.  It’s ‘hypersaline’ meaning it has twice as much salt as the ocean.

Stromatalites

We followed the walking trail around to the shell quarry which was fascinating.  Tiny cockle shells, the only type that can grow in such salty water, cement themselves together and early settlers used cross saws to cut bricks from this quarry. 

These tiny little cockle shells ....

... make up the entire Shell Beach, up to 10 metres deep in places!  

 Denham's a nice little town on Shark Bay with a terrific Discovery Centre where we spent a couple of hours learning about the natural features, shipwrecks and history of this world heritage area.  After two nights here we went to Monkey Mia on the other side of the peninsula to see the dolphins being fed.  To our surprise it wasn't as touristy as we'd feared.  You can't get in the water with the dolphins, but at least you get to see them up close.  There are about 11 regulars, each named and personally identified by the rangers there.

We watched the dolphins being fed at Monkey Mia.  

We enjoyed the whole morning here at Monkey Mia which not only provides a lot of information about dolphins and other marine life but is also located on a beautiful bay.  From here we started our trek up to the Francois Peron National Park at the northern end of the peninsula.  It's about 50km to Cape Peron at the tip, but along a very sandy track.  Only high clearance 4WD vehicles are allowed up there and a tyre pressure gauge is located at the park entrance for all to deflate their tyres before proceeding.