Shark Bay - Monkey Mia

We came to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins. Monkey Mia is located within a reserve.

Here the dolphins naturally swim up to beach to see people.

Mitch and Kia

Kia

Chris was selected to feed the dophin 'Puck'. As it is hard to get selected due the amount of people and the feeding opportunites availible, he let the kids have a go. Only Mitch wanted to do it.

We enjoyed the bay by going fishing (unsuccessfully) and hiring a paddle boat.

Shark Bay - Francois Peron National Park

Francois Peron was another spectacular national park we have visited these holidays. Our campsite at Bottle Bay was situated on a beautiful beach.

Of course Mitch was keen on fishing and caught some Whiting and Dart and we all particpated in oyster hunting. Prue, Chris and Mitch ate them fresh of the rocks.

We also visited Cape Peron and Skipjack Point.

Cape Peron

View of Cape Peron from Skipjack Point

Skipjack Point

Shark Bay - Hamelin's Pools

On our way to Francois Peron National Park we stopped at Hamelin's Pools. Hamelin's Pools is the home to largest stomatalite population in the world. Stromatalies are important as they date back billions of years and house the cyanobacteria that was used to create oxygen as Earth was created. There are only a few stromatalite sites remaing in the world.

Quobba Station

Just north of Carnarvon is Quobba Station. At Quobba Station we got see the blow holes.

We also visiited Red Bluff. An impressive bluff and aptly named. The boys deicided it was a good place to catch some waves.

Canarvon

Carnarvon is known to produce 70% of the winter fruit and veg for Western Australia. A mighty feit. The river below, the mighty Gascoyne.....

..... provides enough water for this. How is this so?

Apparently the Gascoyne is an upsidedown river and has plenty of water under the surface.

We also went to stake out One Mile Jetty to see if was a good fishing spot. Decided it was a long way to walk with your fishing gear.

The caravan park we stayed at was great. it had lots of activities to meet other people. We participated in Spud Night and Roast Beef Roll Night. Ethan particpated in Friday craft while mum and dad tended  to the washing. Although you are meant to bring your own craft with you, such as, knitting, patchwork or embroidery, Ethan still particpated. He met some lovely old women and made a necklace with a tassle out of some left over wool. Mitch thought he was using 'rubbish' to make the necklace. We informed him Ethan was recycling.

Carnarvon - Space Museum

Our First Day in Carnarvon was wet. Therefore we were restricted to inside activities and decided to go to the space museum. A great decision as we had a lot of fun and the boys asked if we could go back.

Carnarvon was set up as an OTC (Overland Telecommunications). But later was used in the NASA space program to track shuttles, such as the Apollo 11 mission when man first landed on the moon.

Boys getting ready to blast off on the Apollo 11 mission

Spot the alien

Shuttle tracking device from NASA

The boys also enjoyed trying land a space shuttle and complete a space walk.

Today the Carnarvon OTC is mainly used to track satallites such as the one used for the NBN. However they still have the old dishes used in previous tracking programs.

Warroora Station

We decided to stop in a Warroora Station for few nights. The station is located next to Ningaloo Reef.

Our campsite. We are the blue one.

There was not much snorkelling close to the reef, so fishing was the main activity undertaken. Our neighbour, Ray, was a lovely man and offered to take the boys out fishing in the boat, however, Ethan did not go and Mitch and Chris did not catch anything.

Spangled Emporer caught on the beach.

A large bait ball.

Unfortunetly we had leave Warroora early as 30-70 ml of rain was predicted on the day we were to pack up.

Coral Bay

Coral Bay is aptly named. It is a small town situated along Ningaloo Reef and offers pleanty to do.

Firstly, if you are Mitch Pocock, you pester your father to take you fishing. Although the catch of the day may be seaweed.

Fishing in Bateman's Bay.

Mitch was not impressed a photo was taken of his catch. Apparently you can only photograph real fish.

Secondly, you can feed the Spangled Perch of an afternoon.

Thirdly, you can go snorkelling. The call the reef at Coral Bay Coral Gardens. Once again aptly named. The variety of coral is amazing.

Finally, and most importantly you can go swimming with Manta Ray.

Manta Rays

We are very exicited to go swimming with the Manta Rays. Even Mitch was looking forward to the event as the water was not deep. The day started with a snorkel at the shark cleaning station. Here little fish clean out the sharks teeth. Never seen so many sharks in the one spot. During our snorkel we also saw a turtle hiding under some coral.

Shark cleaning station

After our snorkel we went swimming with a manta ray. Mitch had a quarter of  a swim as he screamed 'get me out of here' again. He thought that he could not see the bottom. He did not realise the white stuff where the ray was swimming was the bottom. Ethan had a good swim. This particular Manta was a swimming slowly so we did not have to work had to keep up (unlike the Whale Sharks).

The belly of our Manta Ray. It is like a thumb print and is used to identify each manta ray.

Chris swimming with the Manta Ray.

You can just make us out swimming above the Manta.

After we swam with the rays we went whale watching. We we lucky to see both Humpback Whales and Dolphins. Originally we were following the Humpbacks. then suddenly we could see a pod of dolphins making a bee line for us. They started swimming in the wake of the boat and in the wake of the Humpbacks. Very lucky.

Dolphins swimming with Humpbacks.

Dolphin swimming in wake of the boat.

Boys on boat.