With a name like Monkey Mia you would expect the main tourist attraction to be swinging through the trees not swimming in the sea. Dolphins not monkeys are the main tourist attraction here, there were a few camels (more on those later) but not a single monkey in sight.
About 20 or 30 years ago a lady, so the story goes, starting feeding wild dolphins fish scraps off the back of her boat. The dolphins started coming further and further in shore until it was possible to feed them from the beach. Word got out and before long tourists were feeding the dolphins anything they could get their hands on.
Today there is a group of wardens and researchers looking after the dolphins, they still get fed but in a very controlled manner. A mature dolphin needs about 8kg's of fish per day and selected dolphins get 2kg from the wardens once a day, preserving the need for them to find food for themselves.
With no more royalties from re-runs of flipper the dolphins now have to rely on handouts
It was incredible to see the dolphins only a few feet away, the baby dolphins turned up to see what was going on. It was amazing to see them swimming just past your feet. It would appear that the wardens were both highly knowledgeable with regard to dolphins and who should feed them, both myself and Paul (Tim's brother in law) were picked from the vast crowd to help with the feeding.
After a late breakfast we took a trip out on "shotover" a record breaking catamaran to tour the area for marine life. Shark Bay is home to 10,000 or 10% of the worlds Dugongs . We caught a brief glimpse of one (photo from wikipedia) The conditions weren't great but we saw quite a few turtles and a damn sea snake.
On the advice of the skipper we visited a hot tub at an old farm stead on the way back to our hotel. Very strange experience, sitting in a hot tub in the middle of a farm watching the Sun go down, whilst discussing everything from Anglo-Aussie politics to Neighbors. The night sky was amazing with no light pollution here at all, slight problem though when we left the hot tub as the route back through the farm to our car was almost invisible, great with all of the wonderful wildlife they have here.
Above: A view of the catamaran Below: Taking it easy on board
Above: The approach to the hot tub didn't look encouraging. Below: What do you mean Jason Donovan isn't the Prime Minister of Australia
Highlights: The baby dolphins
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