It was a very windy and rainy day. We drove into the Shark-bay World heritage park hoping to have some good stops along the way. The stromatolites are under water from the tide and the rain. We saw them again on the way out of the park the next day, but they were still not very impressive. Live, millions of years old algae growing on rocks is exciting only for geologists. In Denham we stocked up again (bread and juices and for Rudy, his supply of beers) and bought a permit (from the visitor centre) to camp at one of the 4 established park campsites along the coast. We drove on to explore the major attraction in the area: Monkey Mia. We knew there would be no dolphins at this late hour but at least we got a feel of the area. It is a large tourist resort/campsite on a beautiful beach. Too touristic for us. We were glad that we could stay at the park beach campsite with only 5 other campers close to the sea.

The next morning, we had the full dolphin experience. You stand in the shallow water and a pair of dolphin’s swims in front of you waiting for their daily handout of fish. The dolphins are fed only a few fishes so they still must hunt for their own daily meal. Everything is well scripted, so the animals know what is coming and do not expect more fish.

From the bay we drove back out of the park and revisited the sites that we rained out the day before. At Eagle Bluff (yesterday we were almost blown off the boardwalk) we now saw small sharks grazing in the shallow waters along the coast. Back on hwy 1 we drove further north to Carnarvon. The road is straight and therefore suitable to overtake the long road trains you meet along the way. The landscape varies from low shrub to higher bushes and sometimes sections with trees. It is mostly flat and desert-like landscape.