Monkey Mia – Kalbarri

We had come as far North as we intended to on this trip and so it was time to start retracing our steps and head back.

We were up at 6am to start packing up the van as I wanted to see the dolphins again before we left. We had a five hour drive ahead of us so we were going to set off straight away after seeing them. We headed to the beach at 7.30am to await their arrival. The DEC Ranger advised that they had been spotted out in the deep water chasing some fish so they wouldn’t come to shore for a while. We waited almost 90 minutes until they eventually came in but I’m glad that we waited for them.

We left the resort at 9.15am and stopped at a couple of scenic spots on our way back: we saw the Little Lagoon – not that amazing but pretty; had a quick drive around Denham; and stopped off at Shell Beach. Shell Beach is made up entirely of… (Yes, you guessed it)… SHELLS!! These shells have been deposited on to the beach by the tide over thousands of years and more continue to be deposited. The ones furthest from the shore were ground down to coarse sand but as you got closer to the sea, the shells were whole. It was an incredible sight; the beach stretched for miles and to our right we could see where they farm the shells to use for footpaths and buildings – we think.

Whilst at the beach Rich decided to visit the gents, which was our first encounter with what is known as an ‘Outback Dunny’ (Toilet). The ‘toilet’ consisted of four sides of corrugated metal and a roof of the same material. Then opposite the door is a normal looking toilet seat with the lid closed. To the right is a large toilet brush immersed inside a tub of blue coloured anti-septic cleaning liquid. Above the seat was a sign saying to wipe the toilet with the brush, do your business, and then wipe the toilet again and close the lid, then vacate the area as fast as possible (it doesn’t actually say the last part). Oh, and there was toilet paper for anyone reading this and thinking you had to just walk away…

We continued on our journey (after a coffee break – complete with chocolate Hob Nobs) and arrived at Kalbarri at 3.30pm. We had a walk into the town (well, when I say town I mean the main street!) and then just sat in the sun with a couple of stubbies (beers) and watched the sun go down.