Monkey Mia & Kalbarri National park
After an overnight in Denham that evening, we were back on the road early in the morning just in time for the first feeding of the dolphins at the popular tourist attraction of Monkey Mia. The name of Monkey Mia is another complete puzzle as to its origin, and has nothing whatsoever to do with monkeys as far as I could see. the site is fairly unique as to the tameness of these particular dolphins, who come right to the shore 3 or 4 times a day to be fed by hand.
It is not a usual instinct for dolphins to have, and it may well be that this habit will die out with the next generation of dolphins. While it lasts, however, it invites tourists to witness the feedings, and is staffed mainly by volunteers who stand with buckets of fish at the waters edge. I knew what to expect, so wasn’t too disappointed when much of the time was spent standing amongst the crowd on the sand, and waiting as patiently as possible for the dolphins to hopefully appear on the horizon. I had been told already by others that those generally picked by the volunteers to feed the dolphins were small children. I could have abused this fact by putting some pigtails in my hair, but chose the more honest route : )
I had been given the impression from other travellers who had been to Monkey Mia that the overall experience would be disappointing and unexciting, but as I had rarely seen dolphins, let along only a couple of metres away from me in a fairly natural environment, I wasn’t at all unhappy. We stayed for two feedings, the second of which had many more dolphins than the previous one, and I tried furiously (and infuriatingly) to capture them on my camera. A much more difficult fete than you may think!
We jumped back in the four wheel drive not long after the second feeding to continue on to the promise of Kalbarri national park, and our last gorges of our whole Western Australian experience of the trip. Although not quite as impressive as Karijini, Kalbarri does boast 3 famous locations and walks, known as z-bend gorge, natures window and ´the loop´. Z-bend gorge had an awesome lookout over the valley below even if the water level was fairly low. I’m told the flow of it can get pretty ferocious at higher levels.
The landscape was much greener than I had anticipated, and held the mixture of colours between the orange tinge of the earth, blossoming yellow flowers dotted in the shrubs, and a spectrum of green hues in the vegetation all around. It was heating up by the time we traversed these points, but not as knackering as karijinis had been, and a pleasant afternoon of wandering all in all. The only disappointment was the inability to swim in the water, which came to not much more than puddles.
The town of Kalbarri was our place of residence that night, and one I would gladly have spent more time in if I had the chance. For no particular reason other than a very calming feel to the place, and a fantastic spot to watch the sun go down on, with a beer in hand and some fish and chips within arms length. Life doesnt feel like it can get much better than at those moments!
