First Entry from Monkey Mia

Back at Trinity now! What an adventure. Started writing and then typing up parts of the trip as I went. Here is the first entry!

What a trip this has been so far. Sitting on the beach right now at Monkey Mia watching the sunrise as dolphins swim in the bay. Figure I would write out what it’s been like the old fashioned way first and then type it up when I get back or during one of the upcoming bits on the road. (Typing this as we drive from Kalbarri to Cervantes!) But back to the beginning!

After getting up around 5 A.M on Friday morning for a 6 A.M breakfast, the five of us (Colin, Devon, Matt, Kristen, and I) loaded up Winston and set out! I would say we left at around 7 but didn’t actually get going on the freeway until about 8 since the roads were confusing leaving Perth. Driving up north and just watching the terrain change was pretty incredible. There were fields of deep green with cattle and sheep grazing vast desert expanses with only these jaggedy trees growing (the vastness and the desert reminded me of my trip to Joshua Tree); and of course portions along the coast, which were simply beautiful. Along the way we kept a watchful eye for suicidal ‘roos, who apparently, are worse than deer when it comes to avoiding cars. Luckily, we did not see any although there were many dead ones along the road presumably from cars (17 according to Matt and I believe him since he did the whole 10-11 hour drive).

 The main pieces of advice given for driving in Western  Australia were don’t drive at night (especially dusk and dawn) due to the roaming animals and to stop for gas whenever the opportunity presented itself. Our first gas stop was at this old fashioned looking gas station.

 As we were filling up, we kept hearing this strange voice saying, “Hello! Come over here!” As we peeked around the station we saw they had a bird enclosure that had a talking cuckatoo! Took some videos of the bird talking to us. Pretty funny and incredible thing to see. Sort of felt like Brian Felows at one point when the bird started laughing at me. “Shut up bird!”

With Winston’s thirst quenched and our legs semi-stretched we continued our drive up North. The next stop was right outside of Geraldton, where we couldn’t resist stopping for a picnic on this stunning beach. If these blues were a preview for what was to come we were in for some treat. 

After lunch (turkey, salami, cheese, and hummus sandwiches – yum!) and a walk along the beach, we got back going. 

While the air conditioner in the front was working splendidly, those of us in the back were not as lucky, as our vents were just blowing warm air. With the sun beaming down the whole way it was hard not to feel like were Jim Carey in Ace Ventura inside the rhino. Then we had a crazy idea – why not just take turns standing on the roof of the car as we drove?? Har har har just kidding – still breathing mom? Our “great” idea was to open up our windows, which just fixed everything. About 1 or 2 gas stations, some ice cream, and 5 hours of driving later and we were pulling into Monkey Mia just in time to catch a sunset. On the beach were three Australian pelicans (bizarre looking creatures!), a swarm of manic seagulls that were looting the remains of the fishers’ catches, and a dolphin going for a night swim! 

With the light starting to fade we quickly pitched our two tents and to our surprise found a BBQ area where we proceeded to grill sausages and heat up some baked beans. What a start!

The next morning I woke up at 6 and went for a stroll by myself along the beach. I had a pretty amazing view of the moon to my left and the sun rising on my right. 

At about 8 A.M they started to feed the dolphins. These are wild dolphins – not trained at all. As such they don’t want the dolphins to become dependent on the people here or just spend all day at the beach waiting to be fed. In order to ensure this is the case, the people working there only feed them little snacks rather than full meals. The food given is in no way close to enough, which means the dolphins keep coming back due to some sense of curiosity or enjoyment at seeing people. Seeing the dolphins that close was really special, they are such amazing creatures. Hard not to grin as you see one swims by with an expression most similar to a smile. Very cute – especially when one of them is a little baby! 

After the feed I spent the next few hours at the beach where I napped, ate lunch, and snorkeled. It was pretty cool because while snorkeling, I could hear the dolphins clicking and making squeaky noises as they communicated or tried to detect prey. As I was swimming by the clicky noises get really loud and all of a sudden a dolphin just flew by me! They are pretty big and can go really fast (up to 40 km/h!).

 I saw that they offered a marine life catamaran cruise so Matt, Colin, and I signed up for that and spent the next 3 ½ hours getting in a sail while spotting dugongs (imagine ocean cows – very similar to Manitees), offshore dolphins, eagle rays, sting rays, and sea snakes. Despite being wickedly venomous apparently they can only bite you between your fingers or on your lips because our skin is too tough and they can’t open their jaws any wider. Basically don’t try to introduce yourself to one or try to kiss it. 

The ocean areas around Monkey Mia has the world’s largest patches of sea grass - 6000km, of which, ¼ of that area is less than a meter deep. That is what attracts the dugongs as they feed on sea grass. After our sail we took one more swim, rinsed off, and started diner. The meal of the night was chicken fajitas and needless to say it was delicious. Found out cheap wine (talking $10 for 4 litres cheap) actually tastes much better when mixed with blue Gatorade. Who would’ve thought … 

We spent the rest of the night (made it to about 9:30 … late night wooo!!!) lying on the beach and just being blown away by the stars. Took me several tries but here is a shot of the stars and the milky way. This is what we saw – not altered or anything. 

We played around with some photos – some serious ones of the stars but mostly more playful ones of us holding up the moon or striking funny poses. 

Soon the full moon started to rise and I think we witnessed the harvest moon as it was a brilliant orange before fading to its usual white. 

Full of food and wine, surprisingly unsunburned, and very tired I went back and called it a night.