Carnarvon to Shark Bay

From Carnarvon the road follows the coast with a turn off to Denham taking you looping back up along the narrow peninsula of Shark Bay. Large sheltered bays are formed by the 2 fingers of land with shallow grass beds home to the endangered Dugong. Driving up towards Denham gives glimpses of the ocean to both the east and west. It is the stuff of postcards. 

The warm salty water of the bay is home to one of the few remaining colonies of Stromatolites. These ancient life forms may be more interesting to read about than observe. Our kids spent more time spotting 2 week old Welcome Swallows in the mud nests under the boardwalk than examining the 2 billion year old Bacteria. 

  

Peninsula narrows to a few hundred metres at one point where a large electric fence has been put to eliminate ferals. We passed family after family of feral goats on our way down from Carnarvon. Native marsupials including the Bilby have been reintroduced into Francois Peron NP. 

The park was our first destination with beachside campsites nearing the tip. A sandy track gave way to mud flats and back to sand. It was soft in parts making hard work for the car towing the trailer behind. At one point it required some digging, dropping our tyre pressure further and some low range power to get us out. 

Camping on the dunes at Gregorys suited us to a tee.  We woke to the sounds of a Wedgebill. The bird book provides an accurate impression of its metallic voice singing “Did you get drunk?” Manta rays and turtles were spotted from the cliffs at Cape Peron however the Dugongs eluded us. Sand and shrubs, it’s a lizard nirvana.

Denham overlooks Shark Bay exposed to the South West winds which seem to dominate the winter. It is more a gateway to the bay and the miles of coastline. It’s too windy to fish and swim. Denham’s Aquarium gives us an all weather window to the aquatic world. Our guide informed us that he was having trouble getting the large shark up to feed after he attacked and ate a smaller shark in front of an earlier tour group. Lucky them.

One of those overhyped but inevitable attractions is the resort of Monkey Mia. Crowds are drawn to chase the turtles, dolphins and dugongs or just lounge around the beach. When Naomi was chosen to step forward to feed the wild dolphins, she wasn’t so keen. No prizes for guessing who took her place.

Along with Ningaloo Reef, Shark Bay has to be the must see spots on the WA coastline.