Day 151 April 9th 2007, Denham, What Big Teeth you have - Tour of Shark bay Area, 200km

The other great attraction on the West coast of Australia is Nigaloo reef, given we only had a few days up here and that it would be another days driving to get there we decided instead to explore Shark Bay which is a World Heritage Site.

Just South of Denham is Ocean Park which is a mini Sea World under construction, they do have though some impressive sharks including a small Tiger Shark. What was very strange is that the Tiger Shark at Ocean park is released every 3 months so that it doesn't get bored and a new one is caught, for a species close to being on the endangered list this didn't quite seem right.

Driving to the South of the bay we found something very interesting, Stromatolites - living fossils. These guys were around some 2.4 billion years ago and were responsible for converting enough of the Carbon Dioxide atmosphere to Oxygen to allow the formation of life as we know it today.

Stromatolites are only found in hyper saline water (very salty) where the extreme salty conditions inhibit other lifeforms which would graze on them. The geography and conditions within Shark Bay create water conditions that are between 1.5 and 2 times more saline than the sea.

Also worth seeing in Shark Bay is Shell Beach, so called because it is made up of millions of tiny shells and Eagle Bluff where there are spectacular views along the coast.

Highlights: The Grrrrrrrreat Tiger Shark