Day 103 04/07/2011 Monkey Mia – Whalebone Campground

Day 103 04/07/2011 Monkey Mia – Whalebone Campground



I love pearls



Bbbrrr it was very brisk this morning. We stayed snuggled in bed for as long as possible because the wind had come up and it was cold!! Claudia even decided not to go up and see the dolphins this morning because she was snuggled up in bed with her dad. Once we were up and packed we moved the caravan to the visitors bay and headed off to catch the boat for our Pearl Farm tour.  This was a freebie tour that I was given when Pete bought my beautiful ring. 

The ride across to the farm in the boat was fun but freezing, this was the first time the kids had been on a catamaran and they were having fun, particularly when they got to help put the sails up.



a friendly moray eel!!



The tour of the pearl farm was interesting and I never realised how complex it is to grow pearls or how labour intensive it is, no wonder they cost so much.  The kids were also very interested and actually asked some good questions!! Once the tour was finished we were ferried back to Monkey Mia where we were very happy to hop into the car as we were chilled from scooting across the water.

Our next stop was Denham for fuel and lunch. This was a quick stop as we planned to spend a few hours at Ocean Park.

Ocean Park was great we got a guided tour provided by a marine biologist who was able to explain about all the marine creatures that were in their tanks.  The park itself is small and cannot be compared to Sydney Aquarium but the guided tour more than made up for its small size.  The guide was able to answer all the children’s questions and the tour took about 2 hours.  I also learnt the wobbegong sharks are the only sharks that can bite their own tail, as Zac exclaimed “just like a dog”.

Unfortunately they didn’t have a tiger shark in residence as tiger sharks are migratory. So as winter approaches they release their tiger sharks back into Shark Bay so that they can travel to warmer waters.  The kids though, did enjoy seeing all of the other fish and crustaceans. We also learnt that most crustaceans shed their shells as they grow, I always thought their shell grew with them!.



Meet Stumpy the logger head turtle, he is in rehabilitation
another marine predator ate his front right flipper!! This
makes swimming challenging for him!!



We then headed back to Eagle Bluff because we had inadvertently left our shovel behind, well actually the kids left it in the dunes when they were digging sand castles.  Thankfully, the shovel was exactly where they had left it.  We were tempted to camp again at Eagle Bluff but this was a pretty exposed spot and the wind was strong so we headed to Whalebone Campground.

Whalebone Campground is about 10kms down the road but is a little sheltered from the easterly wind.  We set up camp, the boys tried fishing (unsuccessfully) and I went for a walk.  As the sunset we headed into the caravan to play games before and after dinner.

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