Big Lagoon, Francois Peron NP to Wooramel Station via Monkey Mia WA

Thursday 3rd May 2018
Another day waking in the beautiful Francois Peron National Park. We headed out early and were just having a look at the lagoon near the new camp kitchen when we were delayed by some very chatty cooks. The man had been the Director of SLS NT, a keen hiker and traveller. We chatted for almost an hour and were given some tips for Darwin and NT so was a worthwhile delay, although it made us very late for our visit to the Monkey Mia dolphin feeding. We had missed the 1st and 2nd feeding and were running late for the last feeding as it was at approximately 9.45 and we still had to drive about 15-20km on sandy tracks, pump up our tyres and go 20mins along the road to Monkey Mia. Will we or won’t we. We decided we may as well give it a go as that was the last thing we had to do in the area.

We got lucky this time and arrived just after the display had started. It cost $12 each to enter the resort area but was worth it to see the dolphins up so close. We then went for a walk through the resort area which is currently being rebuilt.

We then headed on our way to Carnarvon (about 351km) via Denham, the Little Lagoon and Eagle’s Bluff lookout. As we drove we saw a few animals and many feral goats along the road. This caused DB a little problem when we checked in to our Station Stay as he mentioned to the owner that we had seen lots of feral goats, not realising it was a sheep, cattle and goat station. Oops!! I think we offended him a little as he wasn’t quite so chatty after that. The station is lovely once again. We were looking forward to a swim in the river as this was mentioned many times in WikiCamps comments but not to be this time. We did manage a lovely chat by the log fire with another young retired couple who had been on the road for 3.5 months with another 8 or 9 to go, and another chat with an older couple in the dark in the Artesian Spa (only 33° today) where we watched the stars, Jupiter, shooting stars and satellites for about 30 minutes. It is lovely sharing our journeys, their journeys and tips for future places with all the fellow campers.

Oh well, so much for an early dinner, we only got back to camp at 8pm, lucky we are having a quick vegetable omelet as we haven’t much food left. We had intended to shop when we arrived at Carnarvon today which didn’t quite happen. We are still about 1.5 hours from there. Oh well it is 10.18pm and I still have to name the pics, so nighty night. xxx

: My running track this morning. Still trying to get some running fitness happening. Only my 2nd run and only 2.2km. Oh well, things can only improve on this one.

: Wakey, wakey David. Time for breaky at Big Lagoon campground

: View of the Big Lagoon from the camp kitchen. It was a very new facility

: Dolphin display at Monkey Mia..

: ..they do some informative chatter, whilst waiting for the dolphins to come in to be fed..

: a few people get the opportunity to feed the dolphins. They only feed them a total of 3 fish as they have learnt that overfeeding them was stopping them from being self sufficient and the young were dying. Once they reduced the amount they fed them the number of calves reaching adulthood increased

: Very up close and personal.

: A few feathered friends along the beach…

: ..A couple hiding themselves from the yet again, very strong wind..

: Peek-a-boo!!

: View from the resort at Monkey Mia

: An interesting story about emus, with a sad ending

: If only people would adhere to this message

: Statistics for feeding. As it turned out we were quite lucky being there for the last feeding.

: Monkey Mia

: Little Lagoon just north of Denham

: Inlet to Little Lagoon

: We went off the beaten track again, but not sure about this section so David walked it first. Not wanting to let the tyres down again, we decided to back track this one.

: Little Lagoon from the road on the way out

: I was lucky snorkelling yesterday as I stood on the rocks a few times. I will have to be more careful next time.

: Inlet for Little Lagoon. A little too early for our lunch break, we headed on our way

: On the way to Denham we saw our closest emus yet. Just across the road. Woohoo!! I saw them this time. DB has seen many but I miss them a lot. He really has a great eye for movements in the scrub..

: and they kept walking down the street

: Cool kids playground on the foreshore of Denham.

: David buying some water at Denham’s desalination plant..

: ..it only cost $1 for 20 litres. We heard a story tonight where a slab of 600ml water cost $30 just down the road, we only pay $7 at home for the same thing. They say it is almost as dear as beer here.

: Eagle Bluff lookout…

: ..unfortunately the tide was too low to see much of anything up close, but DB managed to spot a couple of sharks and a stingray through the binoculars

: View from Eagle Bluff lookout

: Wooramel Station Stay

: Our river was a little dry for a swim today but as you can see when there is water it is very wide and would be a very picturesque camping spot. Apparently we need to wait for it to rain elsewhere and the rain to travel down the river to here