Lap Around Australia: Denham and Monkey Mia

Denham and Monkey Mia

It's only about 90 Km to Denham from Hamelin Pool, so we were quite happy to stop to see a few sights along the way. It's not fair to arrive at a caravan park too early, certainly not before 10 am which is checkout time, and we knew the ones in Denham were particularly busy with the school holidays.

So we called into Shell Beach. It is a sight to behold! 70 kilometres of snow-white beach made up of millions of tiny white shells ...a bi-valve called fragum erugatum which are up to 10 metres deep.
The hyper-saline sea is a stunning shade of blue-green and is quite shallow and protected from the wind. It looked glorious!

 

 

 

The Chinese tourists had also found this beach and were there in their finery being photographed by drones. They were cavorting in the water in long flowing orange dresses. We merely waded in and enjoyed the crisply cool water. Too cold to actually swim today. The shells and beach look so starkly stunning. So brightly white you need sunglasses on to look at it for long. Not the most comfortable beach to sit on either.

The countryside on the drive towards Denham started to become prettier with carpets of yellow and purple wildflowers set in orange dirt. We noticed that paddy melons had returned to decorate the roadside. We haven't seen these since Central Australia. There were also the occasional emu and lizard to avoid on the road. We pulled in to a viewing point on a sweeping bend not far out of Denham. The view was just too gorgeous to drive past. We were captivated! When we got out to explore, we were surprised by the variety and colour of the wildflowers there too.

 

 

The Blue Dolphin Caravan Park at Denham was the only one that could accommodate our three vans for two nights. The sites are small and difficult to access and the amenities are quite dilapidated and sad too. The doors to the amenities block are all buckled and don't close properly and the man who runs the place is very grumpy....oh well..it's at least a space for us to stay. It's very windy here, so maybe it's a good thing we aren't right on the beach.

Denham is a pretty little town with a lovely waterfront. There is a wonderful children's playground on the grassy foreshore. I guess that caters to the many kiddie visitors to this area. The big drawcard for them being nearby Monkey Mia where they hand feed the dolphins from the beach. There are a lot of kids in this park. They kick balls around on the road and are a bit noisy. We're mighty glad we have reversing cameras fitted on our vehicle here.

The next day after our arrival we took a drive to Monkey Mia. It's about 25 kilometres away, and a pleasant drive. Everyone who visits here must pay a $12 per head entrance fee to be able to access the beach. We were lucky to be able to get the Senior's discount (only $9/person)
We walked out onto the jetty and were disappointed to see no dolphins in sight. They are wild dolphins so only come in when they choose too. No guarantees. We wandered off to find the resort restaurant and order some hot drinks and food. Of course, no sooner had we ordered, then the dolphins turned up!







The whole crowd descended to the beach to stand at the waterside or on the jetty to watch the dolphins. On this occasion the dolphins were busy chasing fish and didn't want or need to be hand fed. We did get to witness them zooming up and down the shallows chasing fish with a cheeky pelican following them to get in on the fish-catching act. Dolphins round up the fish. Pelican dives in to pinch them.

We returned to eat our food and drinks. Service was a long time coming. Afterwards we went to view the video of the dolphins at Monkey Mia in the Visitor Centre.
On the way back we stopped to look at Little Lagoon. The sea and beaches here are gorgeous colours. Quite breathtaking. It's a shame about this windy weather though, as it's preventing us properly enjoying the beach.