THE LONG LAP AROUND...

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Fishing with Purpose.....

Catching fish has been rather an oddly elusive past time on our trip.

Frank has tried hard (real hard).

If I was a teacher I would give him a stamp for his persistence and effort.

He has had a little bit of success but not 'put a meal on a plate' type of success.

The poor fella has lost all of his interested 'sidekicks' through lack of results.

Ella just said to her Dad 'can we go fishing and catch some baitfish which we won't use as bait'. Bindi Irwin 11 is at it again.

The lack of result has called for some 'academic effort' on Frank's behalf.....

Ron Calcutt to the rescue.......the superman of fishing......

Purchased at the most recent Lifeline Book Sale and apparently a very 'helpful' book.

Will it pull us out of our 'fishing drought'??

Time will tell.....

Because of Ron, Frank is now apparently FISHING WITH PURPOSE and UNDERSTANDING FISH BEHAVIOUR alot better ....

I personally think that Ron is telling us through his book that fishing is all about the hairstyle, facial hair, the hat, and wearing the tightest smallest shorts that you own.

Unfortunately Frank has left his shorts at home but the hair is certainly happening and the facial hair is on the way......

It is all going to fall into place real soon...watch this space for some 'big fish' photos......

PS thanks Max for your fresh fish donation. It was lovely...

Friday, October 21, 2011

Monkey Mia cont....

After all the crowds disperse and move on, it is then easier to notice other beauty around Monkey Mia.

Peaceful surrounds and strangely named boats.....

The biggest Pippies we have ever seen.....

Amazing starfish in the water,

whatever way you look at them,

and a great souvenir shop...

We loved it so much we came back the next day for a later feeding.
Hello again, Surprise....

See you next time.....

Monkey Mia Part One...

Most people have heard about Monkey Mia and whilst planning for this trip, it often came up in our conversations as one of the 'must do' things.

It was very different to what we expected but in a good way. The Dolphin's welfare is the major priority so the 'feeding' was very structured and quite minimal.

There are only (5) female dolphins in the program so you have to wait for one of these girls to come in (which they usually do). There are only (3) feeding sessions each morning and they occur only when the girls come in on their own accord. Feeding stops at 12midday but you may still see the dolphins 'fishing' near the beach.

When one of the girls (or a group) come in, one of the Rangers comes down and gives an informative talk about Monkey Mia and the dolphins. The Rangers can easily identify the dolphins by their dorsal fins and markings on their bodies. They all have cute names: Surprise, Sonic, Shock, Puck, Nicky.

So here we are listening to the Ranger's talk and hoping and praying that someone from our family would be lucky enough to get picked to feed one of the gorgeous girls! Anticipation was high! This would be a dream come true for our little Bindi Irwin 11 (aka Ella).

"James, Mum said to make sure that you look at the volunteer with the biggest, cutest smile you can muster!!"

(volunteers bring the buckets of fish down and pick people from the crowd to feed the dolphin)

"James, here come the volunteers with the buckets of fish, get ready!!"

It was so hilarious as the volunteer didn't pick the gorgeous smiling girl with the bright orange bandanna on, but instead chose the big fella up the back with his bright red tshirt on!!

Doesn't matter, kids you are on!!!

Dad was right there to catch the moment of action....

Excited, happy kids!!!

Excited happy Mother!!

And here is our gorgeous girl, Surprise, with her calf Sonic. Surprise was born in 1979 and has had six calves.

Apparently she is a wonderful mother and is now even a Grandmother!! Her daughter Shock gave birth to her first calf in 2007.

Another amazing experience for the family!!

True bucket list stuff!!

Another World Heritage Listed Area.....Shark Bay...

Western Australia is truly amazing me with its many unique landscapes, features and pure unique beauty.

It is not surprising it has been granted several World Heritage Listings to be proud of!!

By definition a 'World Heritage Area' is the best Earth has to offer, whether it be natural, man made, or of cultural significance. A place to be conserved for all time.

There are several reasons why the Shark Bay Region has been listed as a World Heritage area. There may be more but this is what we discovered.

1. HAMELIN POOL STROMATOLITES....

We drove into this area wondering what the heck are Stromatolites???

I felt much better not knowing as Frank did not know either. He is one of those types you like to have on your table when you are at your school trivia night.

Stromatolites are like 'living rocks'. They are layers of limestone rock built by some 'Cyanobacteria' which traps and binds sediments.

Here they are....

We found it so fascinating that these seaside rock like organisms have played such an important role in the evolution of the Earth.

Some Stromatolites were 'extinct' and others were still growing at the very fast rate of 5cm every 100 years.

Truly amazing....

2. SEA GRASS

Shark Bay has the largest sea grass banks in the world! 400,000 hectares in fact.

The sea grass provides food for the World's largest population of Dugongs in the world.

You can see the sea grass in Denham (the dark blue water)...

and even more amazing at Eagle Bluff...

There are no Dugongs going hungry around these parts....

3. SHELL BEACH

This beach is about 60 km long and in places has a depth of 7-10 metres.

It is made of small shells of the cockle species 'Fragum Erugatum'. Over time the shells have formed a limestone that is known as 'Coquina' which used to be mined and used to construct buildings around Denham. This stopped when the area became heritage listed.

4.MONKEY MIA

Most of us know about Monkey Mia and it was one of the destinations on this trip that I was really looking forward to.

It didn't let us down, it was magic!!

Once again, National Parks manage this attraction extremely well with the well being of the dolphins the main priority.

We visited twice, just couldn't stay away.

One of the Rangers said he had to 'pinch himself' everyday he comes to work! Lucky guy!!

I will do a separate post on Monkey Mia but here is a picture of 'Surprise' who is the dolphin we were fortunate enough to feed....

The Shark Bay region was truly remarkable....another place that was hard to leave.....

Thursday, October 20, 2011

A 'Wild' couple of days.....

After reluctantly leaving Coral Bay we headed onto Carnavon..

As the caravan parks in town were somewhat pricey, we decided to head out to the Quobba blowholes where you can camp in the 'Point Quobba Marine Reserve' for the big price of $5.50 per night!!

'Why not?', let's give it a go. We have free camped before, it will be no dramas for this tough nut type of camping family.(LOL)

Well it was quite a 'wild west experience' I have to say....some of it good and some not so good.....

This sign put everyone right at ease.....

The wild, noisy blowholes were quite a sight to see.....

The wild waves bashed onto the coastline with huge force...

The terrain was a bit like taking a wild walk on the moon....

The kids had a great time playing 'wild' pirate type games on an abandoned boat on the beach....

The surrounding 'accomodation' was quite wild and very 'different' to anything we have ever seen before....

We found it to be quite unusual and intriguing to say the least and we started off quite joyful at our 'cheap' little stay in such a 'different' location.

However,

Some 'wild' locals (under the influence) chose to shake some of our neighbouring caravans at 3am in the morning. Nice, friendly behaviour! This left me feeling a bit unsettled but when the shack dwellers departed the next morning I manned up and we stayed to enjoy the unusual surrounds and lovely scenery for another night.