After leaving Carnarvon we drive south along the North West Coastal Highway for about 200km before turning west and then north on Shark Bay Road to the Peron Peninsula. This is almost the most westerly part of the Australian mainland (nearby Steep Point on the next peninsula has that honour).
About 30km along Shark Bay Road we take a short detour to Hamelin Pool to see some stromatolites and microbial mats. The bacteria which form stromatolites are the oldest living organisms on earth and they've been around for 3.5 billion years. These organisms photosynthesised all those millennia ago to produce the oxygen in our atmosphere. The stromatolites here are only about 2,000 years old. The microbial mats are the birthplace of life on earth and they thrive in this inhospitable place where water temperatures can reach 45C in the summer.
The caravan park at Denham is right on the beach and doesn't have grass but is landscaped with crushed shells. Nearby Shell Beach is made up of billions of tiny white cockle shells. There are so many of them that they have compacted to the extent that the compacted shells have been cut into blocks and used for building construction. This part of Australia was visited by the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog in 1616 and also by other explorers who were probably looking for trading partners at the time.
Our main reason for coming to Denham is to visit Monkey Mia to see the wild dolphins there. The "Dolphin Experience" is run by National Park rangers. The dolphins are totally wild and voluntarily come into the beach to socialise and hunt fish as well as for the "free feed". We saw several dolphins including the pregnant female "Surprise" and a couple of nursing young and Robert was selected to feed a fish to "Puck". The pelicans hang around and will steal the dolphins' fish as they are hunting.
After our visit to the dolphins we drove into the Francois Peron National Park. We're seeing a greater variety of wildflowers, it's amazing how they can grow in the red sand. We've also seen several thorny devils as we've driven around.
We stopped off at the Big Lagoon with its crystal clear water and tiny fish. Closer to Denham we stopped at the circular Little Lagoon.
Back in Denham we were greeted by one of several emus just wandering around the town. We're also being treated to more lovely west coast sunsets.
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