Monkey Mia, Ningaloo and Stuff
Continuing the recap of the west coast road trip...
After Hutt River we headed north to a marine park called Monkey Mia.
The main attraction here was a bay where dolphins would swim within inches of you as you waded knee-deep in the water. It didn't happen when I was there, but at times the dolphins have been known to offer people a fish (hold it in their mouth and wave it in front of them I guess), as well as swim up to people and touch their legs. At times five or six dolphins would be swimming around the bay, jumping out of the water now and then, and chasing each other.
Meet Pelli. These zany looking beasties stood about four feet tall, and had beaks that were about a foot long, and if you annoyed them or got too close they'd stand up and clack them at you. They kept trying to steal the dolphins' food so a park worker would have to come out and distract them every time it was dolphin feeding time. I think that was the park worker's official job, the Pelican Distractor.
Snapped this picture of a stingray that was swimming on the shore, similar to the stingray that killed Steve Irwin.. *breaks into tears* WHY STEVE WHY!!!!!!!!!?!!?!?!?!?!??? *falls to knees weeping*
On our way out of Monkey Mia we stopped off at a place called Shell Beach. The name wasn't an exaggeration, because the beach was literally made out of millions of shells. I mean holy crap, THAT'S A WHOLE HOG LOAD OF SHELLS DEWDS:
Cool huh? Well, the water itself was kind of nasty and looked like it was made of rotting sea weed, but I think it was just because it was low tide.
After another day's drive north we arrived late at Exmouth, a city on the edge of the Ningaloo Marine Park. Ningaloo is basically a really long coral reef, but unlike the Great Barrier Reef, it is only a few feet off of the coast and can be easily swam to.
We ended up staying in Ningaloo for five days, and snorkeling all of them. The best snorkel area was the 'drift dive' at a place called Turquoise Bay. You get in on one end of the bay, and because of the way the ocean currents work there you are pulled along by the current across the reef, drifting as it were. The water in Turquoise Bay was also warmer than the other places we snorkeled.
The coral and fish were spectacular. Imagine hovering above larger-than-a-car masses of spiky blue, orange and yellow coral, with brightly colored fish darting around them. There were eels, sting rays, waving stringy corals, and huge schools of fish rushing about. Giant clams as large as a basketball moved their curvy mouths as we swam past. At one point we turned a corner of coral to find a large sea turtle swimming ahead of us. One strange little fish, about an inch long, was neon blue and traveled in large schools. If you got close to them they would suddenly dart into a brain-like yellow coral, change colors to neon green, and stop moving. I guess they thought we couldn't see them anymore.
Heading north after Ningaloo we headed northeasterly, into a national park called Karijini (recommended to us by the rental car guy, and some creepy trucker guy we met in a road house.) A small hike got us to a nice little staircase-like waterfall. We might have gone swimming had I remembered my shorts, and had there not been so many naked people there. The scenery of this area was kind of nice, with a lot of large red hills and rocks and such jutting up everywhere. Kind of looked like a Roadrunner cartoon.
Heading north and up to the coast again, we stopped by a snazzy beach called The Eighty Mile Beach. Can you, reader, guess how long this obscurely named beach was? I had been looking forwarding to seeing it ever since I spotted it in an atlas, and I was not disappointed. I know it's probably no better or worse than most beaches, but something about it being eighty miles long, and not being able to see the end of it on either horizon, intrigues me. Ooo ahh, eighty miles. I mean, there's probably parts of it no human has stepped foot on in decades. And like, wow, it's really really loooooonnngggg.
Sand castle at the Eighty Mile Beach.
After Hutt River we headed north to a marine park called Monkey Mia.
The main attraction here was a bay where dolphins would swim within inches of you as you waded knee-deep in the water. It didn't happen when I was there, but at times the dolphins have been known to offer people a fish (hold it in their mouth and wave it in front of them I guess), as well as swim up to people and touch their legs. At times five or six dolphins would be swimming around the bay, jumping out of the water now and then, and chasing each other.
Meet Pelli. These zany looking beasties stood about four feet tall, and had beaks that were about a foot long, and if you annoyed them or got too close they'd stand up and clack them at you. They kept trying to steal the dolphins' food so a park worker would have to come out and distract them every time it was dolphin feeding time. I think that was the park worker's official job, the Pelican Distractor.
Snapped this picture of a stingray that was swimming on the shore, similar to the stingray that killed Steve Irwin.. *breaks into tears* WHY STEVE WHY!!!!!!!!!?!!?!?!?!?!??? *falls to knees weeping*
On our way out of Monkey Mia we stopped off at a place called Shell Beach. The name wasn't an exaggeration, because the beach was literally made out of millions of shells. I mean holy crap, THAT'S A WHOLE HOG LOAD OF SHELLS DEWDS:
Cool huh? Well, the water itself was kind of nasty and looked like it was made of rotting sea weed, but I think it was just because it was low tide.
After another day's drive north we arrived late at Exmouth, a city on the edge of the Ningaloo Marine Park. Ningaloo is basically a really long coral reef, but unlike the Great Barrier Reef, it is only a few feet off of the coast and can be easily swam to.
We ended up staying in Ningaloo for five days, and snorkeling all of them. The best snorkel area was the 'drift dive' at a place called Turquoise Bay. You get in on one end of the bay, and because of the way the ocean currents work there you are pulled along by the current across the reef, drifting as it were. The water in Turquoise Bay was also warmer than the other places we snorkeled.
The coral and fish were spectacular. Imagine hovering above larger-than-a-car masses of spiky blue, orange and yellow coral, with brightly colored fish darting around them. There were eels, sting rays, waving stringy corals, and huge schools of fish rushing about. Giant clams as large as a basketball moved their curvy mouths as we swam past. At one point we turned a corner of coral to find a large sea turtle swimming ahead of us. One strange little fish, about an inch long, was neon blue and traveled in large schools. If you got close to them they would suddenly dart into a brain-like yellow coral, change colors to neon green, and stop moving. I guess they thought we couldn't see them anymore.
Heading north after Ningaloo we headed northeasterly, into a national park called Karijini (recommended to us by the rental car guy, and some creepy trucker guy we met in a road house.) A small hike got us to a nice little staircase-like waterfall. We might have gone swimming had I remembered my shorts, and had there not been so many naked people there. The scenery of this area was kind of nice, with a lot of large red hills and rocks and such jutting up everywhere. Kind of looked like a Roadrunner cartoon.
Heading north and up to the coast again, we stopped by a snazzy beach called The Eighty Mile Beach. Can you, reader, guess how long this obscurely named beach was? I had been looking forwarding to seeing it ever since I spotted it in an atlas, and I was not disappointed. I know it's probably no better or worse than most beaches, but something about it being eighty miles long, and not being able to see the end of it on either horizon, intrigues me. Ooo ahh, eighty miles. I mean, there's probably parts of it no human has stepped foot on in decades. And like, wow, it's really really loooooonnngggg.
Sand castle at the Eighty Mile Beach.
posted by Soggy Butterflies @ 1:39 AM
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