Dolphins (Monkey Mia, WA)

And the day dawned for a breakfast of cold pizza. No coffee. Sigh. It's not always the perfect life, being retired. The pizza, dear reader, which was far better than expected last night, held up beautifully for breakfast.

How is my back you ask? Thank you for caring, compassionate reader. It is surprisingly good. I have become religious again and that seems to have helped. Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead, I meant religious in my back stretches and exercises. Not the other sort. It really has surprised me. I've had a lot of time behind the wheel in the car and so far it's all good. Touch wood, as the superstitious reader might say.

This trip was always meant to be an exploration. We have covered a lot of ground and investigated options at the places we have visited, so today we thought should be a kick back and do nothing day. Until tonight when we have a pre-booked indigenous cultural experience.

Doing the flipper thing.

Let's get this bit out of the way immediately. We did not, at any stage, entertain the concept of joining a queue to sit on tiered bench to watch someone feed a dolphin 50 metres away. It may be popular. It may be why the tourist park, sorry resort, exists, but no. The dolphins actually swim along within a metre or 2 of the shore and you can see them much more clearly just by walking the beach. Or if you prefer a more distant view, from the safety of your balcony, glass in hand. Or camera if you prefer. Or if you multitask, both.

However, the title song today Dolphins, is from the brilliant Tim Buckley (the father of Jeff for you youngsters). If you haven't heard of Tim, you should have, just listen. And that's not even his best work.

Close to shore and no crowd in the way.

I digress. After our leisurely breakfast, the next activity for the day was a walk along the beach. Toward the western end of the peninsula where there is a series of red cliffs within the François Perron National Park. Sadly only accessible by 4WD. Yes, I know I have a hire car and they can be whatever you want, but again, no.

The walk was not fun. The sand-shell beach was soft but sharp underfoot and the wind had not abated from the previous day. Our reef shoes were still sitting unworn in our unit. They would have made the journey much easier. Despite such adverse conditions, we pressed on. 

Looking for a spot to sun bake.

Emus, as opposed to dolphins, seem to be ubiquitous with Monkey Mia. They wander everywhere throughout the caravan park. Sorry, resort. Even on the beach. Following the emu encounter, Jayne decided sitting on the sand and enjoying the sunshine in a reasonably sheltered position was the way to go. I soldiered on because I wanted to photograph the red cliffs.

Would have loved to get closer to the cliff.

Finally I joined the growing number of people succumbing to the wind. One of the canoes pulled into the shallows and dad got out and began walking the canoe towards their picnic spot. The children on board did not seem to mind the change. Out came my camera, a couple of clicks later and I had the wind at my back.

I love the colours.

We whiled the afternoon away on the balcony, watching the dolphins and the passing parade of holiday makers. Do you know the best thing about school holidays, dear reader? Watching parents deal with their sullen, miscreant, whining children. And the worst thing about the school holidays? The sullen, miscreant, whining children and their parents. And crowds. 

The cultural experience was to commence at 7:30pm which meant a late lunch/early dinner. It was the Monkey Bar (see what they did there? genius), again, this time to sample their burgers. No beetroot! Shouldn't be surprised, there is not an Australian working anywhere here. I can't imagine how places like this struggled after COVID when the borders were open. It must have been incredibly difficult to find staff. Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, no beetroot on my hamburger. Despite that it was pretty good.

I will save the cultural experience for the next post.

Until then.