Shark Bay World Heritage Site

From Carnarvon, we did the hop down to Shark Bay and Hamelin Homestead which is a delightful conservation bushcamp with many birds flitting around. Evening and morning we went to the coastline to visit the stromatolites, organisms that created early life on earth. Strangely fascinating to look down from the boardwalk at these basic building blocks of life, estimated several billion years old.

 

Our hitchhiking mouse was still with us and, judging by the horrendous gnawing at night in the campervan's roof, was becoming a real problem. In Carnarvon we had bought mouse traps and peanut butter which we set at the front of the van overnight. A loud snap early in the morning signalled the end of one mouse...or are there more...we are holding our breath.

As we traversed Shark Bay, we stopped at Shell Beach which stretches 120km and consists of salt tolerant, tiny mollusc shells, bright white, and some ten metres deep. The compacted rock formed of this shell is known as coquina and was used for construction locally. The blinding vistas of trillions of shells in undulating banks, shining in the sun, are amazing.

The road continued past beautiful beaches up to Monkey Mia where the big drawcard is the dolphin community that interacts with humans at regular feedings each morning.

Monkey Mia also marked victory over the mouse invasion when we caught a second mouse. The mouse is dead, long live the mouse!