The dolphins

Next stop was Denham and the dolphins of Monkey Mia.  The wind was up, and the early morning was pretty fresh, but it was set to be a beautiful day with very few clouds and a possible 24 degrees. The road to Denham was fairly long, I had to endure quite a few renditions of Banjo Patterson along the way. 

We made a stop at Billabong Roadhouse and then on the road again, but only after Kevin held us up talking to random travelers at the fuel pumps!! I'm sure he's intent on talking his way round the country!  

After taking the turnoff to Denham, it was my very first turn at driving the van. I'm sure Kevin has been putting off letting me behind the wheel! It was a bit scary and the cross-wind swayed the van a bit, but all in all I think I did a pretty good job for the whole 30 kilometers I drove!!

We arrived in the township of Denham, found our caravan park, set up, did the washing (well I did the washing) and then set off on foot to explore what the town had to offer.  Steven and Kevin spent the next two hours checking out the Marine Interpretation Centre (I'm not sure what you can do for two hours in a Marine Interpretation Centre), while Beth and I wandered around the town.

We spent the night doing some serious map studying, and tried to put a timeframe on Broome, so that I can start to ring the Caravan Parks and see if we can get in anywhere. Then it was off for an early night with a very early start for the dolphins the next day. 

Friday, and it was up and out early for the trip to Monkey Mia, and what a day we had!

Up early and on the road to Monkey Mia at 7AM, we stopped on the road to get a shot of the sunrise which was magnificent, but left dots in front of my eyes for the next half an hour! Probably shouldn't have looked straight at the sun in my attempt to get a professional sunrise shot.

We reached Monkey Mia and then made our way down to the beach where we waited ankle deep in chilly water for the dolphins to turn up.  And turn up they did!!  They splashed around in the shallow water and checked us all out.  The wait in cold water was well worth it, when I was invited into the water to feed one very cute dolphin a fish.  

After my close encounter with the dolphin and our even closer encounter with hypothermia, we then headed up the beach and into the nearest coffee shop to get some warmth in the form of comfort food. Kevin was very disappointed that he had already had cereal and was therefore ineligible to have the big breakfast that was on offer on the coffee shop menu.

A quick change in the carpark (actually it was a struggle out of wet pants while hiding between the open back and front car doors) and then we headed off from Monkey Mia back to Denham.  Once back, we decided to visit the Shark Bay Aquarium, which was great - and the young guys who ran the tour were great also!

The afternoon was spent soaking up the sun, walking along the beach, and generally relaxing under the awning watching the comings and goings in the caravan park - actually to be more accurate, the boys were doing all the people watching while Beth and I dealt with the washing and ironing.

We leave Denham tomorrow and head to Carnarvon.