Monkey Mia-the home of Dolphins and Dugongs

Monkey Mia is a seaside resort that you reach by leaving Hwy 1 and driving 130 km down a road that is dry, straight and boring.
 After enduring 1.5 hours of heat and sweat, you finally reach the coast and Denham and then there is another 20 km to go before reaching the beautiful Monkey Mia resort. The place was buzzing with backpackers, campers and holiday stayers of all kinds.

Unbelievable colours of the sea

We went on a cruise and were introduced to the pearl industry and this was totally fascinating.  

We now fully understand why good quality pearls cost what they do after our visit to the pearl farm. 

The same tour took us our to areas where the dugongs roam around. They are a funny type of sea creatures and they are related to the elephants and hippos. 12 000 of them live in the huge bay. However, 50% of the new born calves are taken by the tiger sharks each year. 

The bay is also home to more than 2000 bottle nose dolphins and a small group of them come ashore every day to meet the tourists and get a couple of small fish. They only feed 3 of them so habit more than the food must be the reason for the daily visits. 

Dugong mother and calf

We had a great stay, enjoyed all the wildlife, good food and caught up with some travelers we knew from previous places.

The only challenge was the wind, we didn't get too much sleep the first night as if sounded like a full on storm in the tent. We did some readjustments the following night, tying down as much as possible and taking away anything that could flap and we slept much better the second night. 

Graeme got a curious visitor whilst packing up

This emu family crossed our path as we left the resort 7AM in the morning.