Day 118 - Around Denham by car

40kmph SSE winds confronted us this morning, straight off the sea.  It was sunny, but cold enough to induce a "stay inside" syndrome, at least until 10.30am.  Then we overcame our fear and headed off to see Monkey Mia, Small Lagoon, Denham Lookout and the Ocean Park.

Small Lagoon popped up first.  It is a birrida* which has maintained a link to the sea via a small creek.  The lagoon itself is quite shallow but the blue water in the deeper part covering the seagrass contrasted with the pale green of the shallows.  The fact it is called Small Lagoon suggests there is another larger one.  Perhaps we will find that tomorrow.

020814 Little Lagoon just outside Denham

Monkey Mia is on the other side of the Francois Peron Peninsula from Denham, about 28km away.  It is the site of the famous dolphin/human interaction - feeding the dolphins.  It is quite commercialised of course  and you have to pay to get in.  We did see several dolphins but from a distance.  The water was the, by now familiar, blue and green and the sand off-white, leading up to the inevitable red sand dunes.  The whole peninsula is a rolling mass of red sandhills with frequent birradas breaking up the verdant landscape.  Monkey Mia is on the leeward side of the peninsula so we at least received some relief from the wind.

020814 Monkey Mia, the commercial side

020814 The beach at Monkey Mia

020814 The Gnome on the boardwalk at Monkey Mia

020814 Monkey Mia, the natural side

The Denham lookout was a bit of a misnomer.  The view was not at its best and Denham was difficult to see, with the sun streaming through the sea mist created by the incessant wind.  We did however see two very interesting sights, emus paddling in the shallows on their way to go fishing and what we thought initially was a giant t-hong tree.  However it wasn't, as the photo below will attest.

020814 Emus walking through the shallows - to go fishing?

020814 Not a giant t-hong tree but a "Thong Shack", with emus in the background

Ocean Park was interesting.  There were about 10 tanks containing many of the fish, shark, sea snake species et al that inhabit Shark Bay.  The biggest tank contained a number of sharks which were fed as we viewed them.  Sorry, no photos because of reflections of the water surface.

Gosh oh gee, being a tourist is tiring!

*A “birrida” is a depression in a land mass, generally of sand dunes, originally formed by a rise in sea level followed by a fall in seal level.  This may leave the depression full of salt water.  The movement of sand dunes cutting off access to the sea may contribute too.  Over time the water evaporates leaving a high salt concentration in the soil. This allows only salt tolerant species to grow in the soil.

020814 One of the many birridas on the Francois Peron Peninsula