Break 1 - Day 3 - On the Road to Shark Bay

We rose early and were on the road by 7am. We estimated between 600 & 700 km to drive today which turned out to be right. We've been almost hobbit-ish in our eating habits - we stopped in Geraldton for 2nd breakfast (our first visit to 'Mackies' - McDonalds in Oz) and then had lunch on the road at a rest stop. We had our first taste of the true outback experience. They flies were so bad that we had to eat in the car. I have since bought Kyle a fly net as he really cannot stand them and gets quite twitchy.

As we were making good time – the weather, traffic and our bodies all co-operated to make an ‘easy’ drive, we stopped in at Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites and telegraph station.

The Hamelin pool stromatolites are a different variety than those near the pinnacles. There are two major types here in Shark Bay, and they are out into the water. There are ones that look like moss almost – they grow horizontally in the shallower water. There are also ones in the ‘deeper’ (still very shallow) water which grow upwards. These are not circular however, they are more columnar.

The telegraph station is now retired, but was the primary means of communication from 1884 till full telephone service (can't find the date, but it was later than you would think - something like the 1960's). Again lots of flies, but interesting stuff around the station.

Of great interest were the buildings - made of shell stones. We saw the quarry where they carved blocks of shell rock (don’t know what else to call it – it was pure shells formed into rocks) for building – there is very little wood here due to the small size of the trees. I suspect the combination of poor soil, little water and high winds combine to dwarf all the trees. Driving through the landscape is not really scrub – but more mini trees or bushes. At any rate, they built out of the shells. The quarry is no longer used except to restore the historic buildings.

Finally we stopped in at Eagle Bluff to see the views – spectacular, but the most memorable thing is the WIND. Mike figures he has never experienced such strong wind before (apart from sticking his head out of a moving car). The winds were so strong you could barely talk to the person next to you. The water was very turned up, so we did not get to see the dugong, rays or sharks that are often visible in the bay area. The lookout is a walkway high up along the coast looking down and the view is quite good into the water. There was also remnants of an aboriginal fishing pool. They built a long sand bar out into a pool in the bay and herded the fish into it (they think).

At last we arrived in Denham around 5pm and got settled in to our quaint little cottage in a resort. We took a quick walk into town to get oriented. We had a nice hot tub, shower, and dinner (local restaurant – seafood and chips for Kyle & I, Mike had prawn curry) before an early bed for another early rise to go see the dolphins of Monkey Mia.