Day 102 03/07/2011 Monkey Mia – exploring Francois Peron National Park

Day 102 03/07/2011 Monkey Mia – exploring Francois Peron National Park



waiting fot the dolphins



Up early this morning because we wanted to get to the first feeding of the dolphins.  We walked over to the beach and joined about 150 other people who were all hoping to not only get to see the dolphins but to be one of the few who get picked to feed one of the dolphins.  It was exciting to see about 8 – 9 dolphin’s slowly swimming towards the beach; some were obviously young ones who were frolicking in the shallows.  We learnt that whilst many dolphins swim in there are only five dolphins that get fed.  We were also told that only female dolphins get fed because the rangers have learnt from experience that male dolphins became aggressive in an effort to get more food.  We also learnt that humans didn’t pat the dolphins any more, as the dolphins when patted can retaliate by biting!! We were happy to keep our hands out of the water. 



Claudia feeding the dolphin



Once the feeding started with the three dolphins Claudia was lucky enough to be randomly selected to feed a fish to a dolphin, she was very happy about this.

After this fun experience we packed a picnic lunch, swimmers and fishing gear and headed off to a day in Francois Peron National Park. The drive in was 4 x 4 through thick soft sand, Pete had a great time and we all hung on.  At one stage I stole a glance into the back seat and both Claudia and Zac were holding on to their respective hand grips as the car bounced along….but there was Callum perched in the middle happily reading his book, it must be great not to get car sick!!

We drove straight to the furthest tip of Cape Peron for our picnic lunch and then enjoyed the picturesque walk to Skipjack Point. The walk called Wanamalu Trail stretched for 1.5km one way along the cliff edge providing excellent views of the coastline and to keep the kids interest there were interpretive signs along the trail.  At Skipjack Point perched high above the bay on the lookout we were able to spot a group of Manta Rays, lots of very big fish swimming in the rocks, dolphins frolicking and a shark.



Im not sure who was checking out who!!



After we returned to the car we headed to Bottle Bay for a spot of fishing.  Bottle Bay was beautiful and I envisage I would have time to recline on the beach whilst the kids and Pete had a futile fish.  How wrong was I, Zac had no sooner cast into a small gutter just off the beach and he was hauling in a baby snapper, not big enough to keep but he was happy.  This catch caused a frenzy on the beach as other rods were hooked up and everyone grabbed a spot to fish.  Zac then pulled in another small fish, but not to be outdone by his older brother Callum pulled in a 49cm barbed tailed flathead, this one we could keep and would be part of our dinner.  We all fished happily catching little bream and whiting.  I was kept busy baiting hooks and re rigging lines, my book lay discarded on the towel.  Callum whilst twiddling his thumbs somehow managed to land a second big fish, a 30cm whiting, yum more fish for dinner.  After about an hour, much to the kids disappointment, we had to pack up to drive back, we didn’t want to drive through the soft sand in the dark.

Callum and dinner

On the way back into town we stopped at the Peron Homestead precinct where Zac, Claudia and I took the opportunity to jump into the hot artesian bore hot tub.  This tub is a constant 40 degrees so it was beautiful to recline in after a lovely day. 

We arrived back at the van tired and hungry, a great day exploring.

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