Monday October 1st

As we are now in Kalbarri following our sixteen days in Shark Bay, it is time to update the blog.  Shark Bay has been yet another fascinating area, historically, geographically and environmentally and the fact that we have been in no rush has afforded us the opportunity to really appreciate all these elements.

I was forced to confront the fact that my general lack of interest in history (much to the ongoing horror of Kate, who has definitely inherited Murray’s history genes) meant that I was quite unaware of the details of the European history of this area.  Being suddenly somewhat ashamed, I tried really hard to pay proper attention to the facts, which are:

·         the first white man to arrive on Australian soil was the Dutch trading-ship captain, Dirk Hartog, in 1616 - 152 years before the famous voyage of Captain Cook;  he landed on what is now Dirk Hartog Island, which is part of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area (land);

·         another Dutchman, William de Vlamingh visited the area in 1697;

·         the British navigator and naturalist William Dampier went ashore at what is now called Dampiers Landing, also on Dirk Hartog Island and here made the first scientific collection of Australian plants (now we are getting into things which really interest me!), which is still preserved at Oxford University;

·         in 1801 Captain Nicolas Baudin’s French expedition arrived and on his ship, the ‘Geographe’ was a zoologist, Peron; the skipper of the ‘Naturaliste’ was Baron Emanuel Hamelin and two of his junior officers were Louis and Henri de Freycinet.

Even a philistine such as me cannot fail to notice the connection between these early visitors and the resulting names of places in both this area and further afield and my ongoing ramblings will further inform this revelation!  I can however share with you the very important fact that the traditional name for this area is Gathaagudu, meaning two waters.  My preference is always for the name by which these areas have always been known – they are so much more appropriate than recycled European names.

Before we arrived here, we were well aware that Shark Bay was a World Heritage Area, but we did not realise that it is one of only a handful of regions in the world to meet all four criteria for World Heritage listing.  The Shark Bay Marine Park covers some 1,500 kilometres of coastline and is home to a range of marine life including Humpback and Southern Right Whales, Dugongs, Manta Rays, Green and Loggerhead Turtles and dolphins.  Some 17 mammal species, 98 reptile and amphibian species and over 230 bird species, some of which are endemic to this region, have been recorded.  

Shark Bay is at the cross over of environmental zones – tropical, temperate and desert and it is this which has led to the diversity of species, many of which are at the limits of their territories.  We learnt this and much, much more in the excellent Discovery Centre in Denham but, as always, I am getting ahead of myself!

We arrived in the Shark Bay area 0n Saturday September 22 and spent the first two nights camped at the Nanga Bay Resort and Caravan Park, a very grand name for what is a quite acceptable, but quite old and worn, collection of accommodation types right on the coast on Henri Freycinet Estuary and about one third of the way up the Peron Peninsula.  Previously a working sheep station, it has recently been purchased by the government to be added to the conservation estate.  The beach was the usual beautiful white sand, good for swimming and fishing, although the water was quite salty.

No luck fishing, but what a beautiful spot!

 

Sand dunes at sunset

 

Time to wash some salt off the solar panel

The organic baffle created by the extensive seagrass meadows in Shark Bay (the largest area and number of species of seagrass in one place in the world), has trapped large volumes of silt and sand and it is this barrier which impedes tidal exchanges in the various bays, affecting the salinity of the water, which ranges from oceanic to metahaline to hypersaline.  At Nanga Bay it is metahaline, or 1.5 times as salty as the ocean.

Whilst at Nanga Bay, we drove the short distance to Shell Beach Conservation Park.  Here millions of small, white Coquina Shells have accumulated over time to create a beach of shells, which stretches some 120 kilometres around L’Haridon Bight.  In some places the shells are ten metres thick. 
 

 

Murray thought he should provide me with a label !

These shells are no more than 1cm, so imagine how many it takes to create a depth of 10 metres!

 

Coquina limestone is a natural composite of calcite crystals and shells and many of Shark Bay’s historic buildings are constructed of blocks of this fascinating material.  The old Shell Quarry at Hamelin Pool now supplies blocks for the upkeep of these historic buildings only.

These shell blocks are about the size of a Besser block

Impressively, as you travel from Nanga Bay to Shell Beach, you pass through an electric feral-proof fence, which is constructed across what is the narrowest point of the Peron Peninsula.  Project Eden, a nationally significant conservation program which aims to re-establish healthy numbers of threatened and endangered species, has seen some 32,000 sheep and feral goats removed from the Peninsula, a successful fox eradication scheme and ongoing feral cat control programs.  Bilbies, Mallee Fowl and Woylies have been reintroduced and stocks of Mala, Banded Hare Wallabies and Barred Bandicoots are being bred for release. 

We left Nanga Bay on Monday to travel the enormous distance of 50 kilometres to Denham.  Stopped on the way to visit Eagle Bluff where a 200 metre boardwalk along the edge of the bluff offers an amazing opportunity to view the surrounding area.  The varied colours of the sea as it slowly becomes deeper, set against the colours of the surrounding land was a just astounding sight (again!).

Looking south

Looking north

 

 

Eagle Island, a tiny island just off the coast which was once mined for guano, is an important nesting area for Pied Cormorants, Rock Parrots and Silver Gulls.  Apparently the largest population of cormorants in WA resides in Shark Bay.

 

Denham, located on the western side of the Peron Peninsula, has evolved from a pearl town with a street paved with pearl shell to the ‘hub’ of the tourist and fishing industry of Shark Bay.  Having said that, it is in fact a very small, but pleasant place to stay and as it would appear that most of the tourists who visit Monkey Mia and the national park do so from here, it is pretty quiet during the day.

Denham, where the dredged access to the jetty creates a beautiful pattern of colour

We had six days in Denham and used the time to catch up with boring stuff like washing and much more exciting things such as swimming at the gorgeous beach, visiting the Discovery Centre a few times (there is so much well-presented information on the geology, history, Aboriginal and European heritage and environment of Shark Bay, one visit is not nearly enough), checking out the historic shell-block buildings and generally wandering around.

Shell block restaurant (formerly a church)

Nearby Little Lagoon is another beautiful spot.  A large lagoon of crystal clear water (also very salty and reputedly home to many Stone Fish) was created when rising sea levels flooded a birrida, or gypsum pan, between sand dunes. A subsequent drop in sea levels means the lagoon is now fed by the sea via a tidal creek.  Very popular with Pied Oystercatchers we discovered – I have never seen such a large group of these birds.  The four wind generators in the photos provide up to 50% of Denham’s electricity.  The lack of renewable energy generation on this west coast has astounded us.  Apart from the many solar hot water units on houses, there is still a huge reliance on diesel-powered generation.  Crazy – such potential for solar energy.

 

Little Lagoon from the Gun Club (they are useful as vantage points!)

 

The tidal creek joining the lagoon to the sea

On Wednesday we were most disquieted to have a brief (10 minutes) but heavy shower of rain – the first rain we have had during the day since we left home on May 7!  Mind you, it wasn’t too unpleasant as it was still hot.  We also had three brief but very heavy showers overnight, which helpfully washed all the salt exuded every night by the ever-present Tamarisk trees off the van and car.  Thursday was well occupied re-organising all the camping gear ready for our expedition to Francois Peron National Park and watching the clouds to see if we thought all rain was gone – tents and rain are not a good combination for fair weather campers like us!

On Friday morning we delivered the van to the storage place and took off with great enthusiasm.  We had heard so many great things about Francois Peron National Park and as it is so close to Denham, we were looking forward to spending the whole four days exploring rather than driving.  My big hope was to see a Thorny Devil!

Soon after entering the park we stopped to visit the Peron Homestead, with its old shearing sheds and ‘Hot Tub’, where one can soak in a hot artesian tub – very appealing if the temperature was a considerably less than the 26 we were enjoying!  The park area was developed as a sheep station in the 1880s, but was purchased by the state government in 1990. 

 

Before leaving here, we let lots of air out of the tyres, ready for the next four days of driving on soft sandy tracks.

 

The park covers 52,500 hectares of arid shrublands and sandplains, with their two distinct vegetation types and we were quickly aware of the range of desert-adapted plants, many of which were flowering, that manage to withstand this harsh environment.

 

Next stop on the trip up the peninsula was the beautiful Big Lagoon, which is open to Denham Sound and is on the western side of the Peninsula.

 We then travelled further north, along the very sandy tracks and across a couple of birridas, before driving over to Herald Bight on the eastern side of Peron Peninsula, which provided our most exciting sand driving.

A birrida or gypsum claypan.  Move off the track at your peril - there are bogs just under the surface!

 

 

Herald Bight was once the site of a fish processing factory established in the 1930s – astounding when one thinks of the isolation of these areas by today’s standards!  Was a great spot for lunch and a wander along the lovely shoreline.  The clarity of the water continues to astound us.

Back to the ‘main’ track to continue our trek north.  Called in to South Gregories to see if it would be a good spot to camp but as nice as it was, we decided to continue on a little further to Gregories and what an inspired decision this turned out to be, as a little further on great excitement ensued when we came across a Thorny Devil sitting right on the track.  Got out to take some photos and soon discovered that it was totally unconcerned by all the attention, so we were able to get really close.  Once we had taken heaps of photos and were ready to leave, Murray decided we should move it off the track so that it didn’t get skittled by one of the lunatics you encounter in these places who thinks he is a rally driver, but it was so difficult to move along - was doing its level best to pretend it didn't exist at all!

 

Whilst in the Discovery Centre in Denham, I had read a bit about how the Thorny Devil obtains water, which confirmed something remarkable I remembered from some time in my past and which I need to share with everyone.  This amazing little creature (the one in the photos here was only about 16 centimetres long) has channels between its scales which carry water collected from damp sand by vibrating its feet, along to its mouth.  Can you believe that – what an absolutely astounding physiological adaptation!

Made it into Gregories and set up camp in what seemed like a force nine gale – we were seriously concerned about how the tent pegs would manage to keep the tent anchored in the sand in the face of such strong winds.  Luckily Murray had a stash of extra guy ropes some poor soul had left behind in El Questro, so he used these to great effect and attached the tent to the fence posts around the site.

 

We were immediately entranced by the number of birds around and had our first encounter with the call of the Chiming Wedgebill – something we would become very familiar with over the rest of our time in the area.  We also very quickly saw Pied Honeyeaters and Variegated Fairy-wrens, which are the most gorgeous little birds imaginable.

Chiming Wedgebill

Female Variegated Fairy-wren

Variegated Fairy-wren - isn't he gorgeous!

I devoted a huge amount of time to trying to get a decent photo of a breeding male White-winged Fairy-wren, but they are so timid.  Here in Francois Peron and on Dirk Hartog Island, these beautiful little birds are black and white rather than blue and white, as we had seen in Cape Range National Park.  This was the closest I could get!

Once again, we had ended up in the most superb spot – right on a glorious beach with stunning views up to Cape Peron. 

Gregories beach, looking north to Cape Peron

Over the next four days we explored the northern end of the Peron Peninsula, making a couple of trips up to Skipjack Point, where you look down into the clear, turquoise waters of Shark Bay and across to the spectacular coastal scenery, with its cliffs of red Peron sandstone, white Tumbla limestone and brilliant white sand dunes.  I know it sounds like I am writing a rant for a tourist brochure, but the place is just astounding!  While we were looking down from the lookouts at Skipjack Point we saw a couple of large sharks hunting around the rocks and what we assumed to be a couple of large rays – maybe Mantas.

Looking south from Skipjack Point

Looking west towards Cape Peron at Skipjack Point.  The line of red sandstone between the layers of white limestone is amazing and, as always, the photo does not do it justice!

Nearby Cape Peron is no less spectacular!

 

As we were driving around we saw lots of reptiles – Bobtail Lizards, Racehorse Goanna, a Bearded Dragon and a Western Blue-tongue.  Between these and the birds, we were constantly delighted by the diversity of wildlife.  We spent ages trying to work out what creatures were responsible for the many tracks we saw in the red sand each morning.  The only ones we were certain about were Euros – lucky no-one was relying on us for species identification! 

Bobtail Lizard

Racehorse Goanna

This little dragon was busy gobbling ants over from our camp and was totally unconcerned by our attention:

Check out its long back toes!

Another wonderful wildlife moment occurred when we met our campsite neighbours as we were walking down the beach one morning and Robin took us to see a ‘dead’ seasnake which had been lying amongst the rocks above the high water mark for the four days they had been there.  Murray, being Murray, touched its tail and the resultant writhing from the seasnake caused us all to jump a mile!  He then did his best good deed for a very long time and carried it back to the water, where it lay looking a bit ill for a short while before moving slowly forward into the water and then swimming strongly off.  It was a very special moment.

 

See the flattened, paddle-like tail . . .

In between all this activity, Murray spent ages fishing from the beach in front of our campsite and at low tide, from the superb rock reef which creates the protected bay there.  He did manage to hook a couple of impressive reef sharks from the rocks, which he released, but they did provide lots of excitement and challenge as he brought them in.  Sadly, my camera and I were not there to record these achievements.  Beach fishing was, on occasion however, frustrated by hunting Bottlenose Dolphins which ranged up and down the beach – Murray was highly indignant - one can only take the wonder and appreciation of local wildlife so far!

This was not just a popular spot for the fishers camped here (and there were so few other campers – we were constantly astounded that we did not have to share this beauty with many other at all!), but also for a great range of wading birds, some of which we were even able to identify!     The Field Guide to Australian Birds got a real workout and still we were stymied on many occasions – where are Gordon and Brian when you need them! 

While Murray fished, I wandered around with the binoculars and camera trying to get the ‘perfect’ shot of some of the many birds zapping everywhere, so we were both happy!  Goodness only knows how they survive in this arid environment



Thick-billed Grasswren - a threatened species, so as a rank amateur I was pretty thrilled to see one!

Last Tuesday morning we packed up the tent to drive back into Denham to pick up the van before driving across to Monkey Mia, where we were to meet Peter and Karina and the girls later in the day.  Given that it was some four and a half months since we had left home, we were really looking forward to seeing them.

Tuesday night saw us all out to tea, where we had lots of fun and celebrated Karina’s birthday of last week again and caught up on everyone’s news.

 

On Wednesday we all boarded the Shotover, a large catamaran which takes wildlife cruises out into Shark Bay.  We managed to see a couple of Humpback Whales (one with a calf) close up, a Loggerhead Turtle swimming on the surface and some dolphins, but no Dugongs.  It was, unfortunately,a very windy day, which made the surface quite rippled so it was very difficult to see things in the water.  On the plus side, no-one got seasick, even those of us pre-disposed to such things!

Loggerhead Turtle

Murray and Peter did lots of beach fishing for the rest of the afternoon and night and they had plenty of fun – caught a whiting and a flounder, which we ate for tea and two Blue-spotted Fantail Rays and a Shovel-nosed Ray, all of which were released.  Murray also reckons he hooked a large shark, which fought him for quite a while before cutting through the line.  During all this time, Karina and I made sure that we hadn’t forgotten to share any important things about everyones' lives!  The night ended with a lovely long conversation with Kate and Derek, as it was his birthday – reminded us yet again that the thing we have missed most on this wonderful trip has been seeing Tim and Kate and Derek.

On Thursday morning we sadly bid the Farrugias goodbye and went our separate ways, they to Coral Bay and us down to Hamelin Station at the southern end of Hamelin Pool.  Having been in touch with some other friends, Rex and Maureen, with whom we had stayed at Willunga (SA) right back at the beginning of our trip, we were hoping that we would now see them here and that is exactly how it worked out – they were in the campsite next door.

 

More sharing of travel stories over a coffee and then a glass of wine or two and tea. 

We really took this at Kalbarri, but I wanted to put it in here!

Next morning they headed south to Kalbarri and we went for a walk around the camp area and the bore lake to see what birds we could find – they seemed to be everywhere!  More Chiming Wedgebills (these birds manage to drive a good many people mad with their incessant call)ing, White-winged and Variegated Fairy-wrens, along with Red-capped and Hooded Robins, White-fronted and Crimson Chats and many honeyeaters.  Christine (camp ground ‘host’) had told me that there were Splendid Fairy-wrens here also, but we didn’t find any males, although I did discover when downloading my photos that night that the female wrens I had photographed were actually Splendids.

 

White-winged Fairy Wren - back to blue and white here, as we saw at Cape Range

 

Friday's ‘activity’ was a visit to the nearby stromatolites.  These are in the shallow waters of the southern part of Hamelin Pool, which is hypersaline (twice as salty as ordinary sea water).  As animals that would normally graze on algae cannot survive in these conditions, some 3,000 years ago cyanobacteria started flourishing, forming stromatolites.  These are solid structures which look like a cross between a cauliflower and a rock, but they are actually alive and teeming with these cyanobacteria, which are plants and therefore photosynthesise.  These resemble the oldest and simplest forms of life found on earth 3.5 billion years ago and it was these same cyanobacteria which formed extensive stromatolite reefs, releasing increasing amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere – a major stage in the Earth’s evolutionary history and one which allowed we animals to evolve.  What an awe-inspiring thing to look over these simple-looking structures and realise that they are just like those which are responsible for the Earth we inhabit today.  Because it was so amazing, I felt honour-bound to explain it to you all!

 

 

 

 

Closer to the shore are cyanobacteria which grow as black, spongey mats rather than as columns and in this photo the wheel ruts of camel-drawn wagons taking wool to lighters at a jetty in the early part of the last century, can still be seen and provides a very real indication of how incredibly slowly they grow.The area is now totally protected and all access is by boardwalk.

We then walked along to the Shell Block Quarry and the historic Telegraph Station. 

 

 

 

As we left the Telegraph Station site, we checked out all the support vehicles for the Australian Safari, an offroad race, which were parked along the road. Murray went back a little later to see the cars, which had not arrived when we were there.

 

 

Back to the camp and I finished the afternoon with a fascinating two hour ‘bird walk’ around the property with Christine, hoping yet again to see some male Splendid Fairy-wrens.  Whilst they were not co-operating, we did see lots of other wonderful birds.

 

Brown Falcon

 

Red-capped Robin

 Hamelin Station, which is still a working sheep station and now provides high class bush camping was one of the best places at which we have stayed and not just because of the birds!  The camp kitchen and other 'facilities' were great and built in sympathy with the location - one does encounter some unbelievably 'tacky' developments in the tourist areas we have visited, so something like this really stands out. 



The camp kitchen and outdoor barbeque/entertainment area, with the 'motel' accomodation behind.

Moon rise over the campground

Saturday morning saw us packing up once again.  I cribbed a half hour before we left to see if I could possibly track down at least one breeding male Splendid Fairy-wren and I am thrilled to report that my persistence (or maybe obsession)  paid off.  I was so excited and he was just gorgeous!!!!

So, it was off to Kalbarri where we will be until Wednesday.  I am sure that as wonderful as it is proving to be, I will not need to write as much as I have managed to do this time.  We need to visit more boring places so that I do not need to go on so much!