Finally into Kalbarri

Today we finally made it into Kalbarri, after kidding ourselves for each of the previous two days that we might make it. So much to see, but such long ways to travel is really stretching the effort at the moment.

Nanga Bay last night started raining, and just got heavier. Having said that, it has just started pouring here as well. Any hope of delaying for a fine patch was dashed as the rain varied a little, but was always there. Most disappointing is that our expensive new tent is a bit silly in construction. It has a seam running around about 30cm above the floor and water running down the outside of the tent hits the seam, wicks in and drips down inside. Given that the tent is just long enough to hold our air bed it kind of means you get wet. Just a little, so you don’t notice it until morning, but wet just the same.

Nanga Bay wasn’t inviting enough in itself to delay us in the rain, so off we went. Our first stop at the roadhouse was interesting because there was a sizeable queue at the only diesel pump in the place, while the numerous unleaded pumps were all idle. A sign of the times perhaps? It was uninspiring for lunch so we carried on.

Nothing leapt out at us as a lunch stop, so the topic came up that we would be about to crossover the latitude of home somewhere on that leg. With the aid of the GPS, we could pinpoint the exact location. Apart from the location which was auspicious, but perhaps only for us, it was also notable because of the age and variety of litter spread along the roadside. Remember when drink cans were steel, and the ring pull came off? I think Cleanup Australia Day can’t have taken off in this part of the world.

Today also saw us enter the much-anticipated wildflower country. At this stage the best stuff seems to be confined to the roadside, perhaps where it is a little more open, and the seeds are spread by the wind from passing vehicles. None of the endless plains yet, but they will come, I’m sure. We can’t give you many names of flowers as the bird fanatic hasn’t got a flower book to memorize but I can mention grevilleas, hakeas, wattles, Geraldton wax, clovers, daisies and everlastings to name a few. Every colour as well. The back seat enjoyed the visual feast as much as we did. Elliot was heard to mention that he and Izzy plan to come and live here someday!!  It did also cause Isabel to note that flowers come in pink, but not so much birds, which of course caused Louis to dive into the bird book to prove the converse.

 

 

We also very definitely passed into cropping country, with canola, and we suspect wheat marking a stark contrast with all of the country we have seen for the last two months.

Kalbarri is a National Park, as well as a town. The national park protects the land surrounding the Murchison River, which has carved a gorge through this area on its way to the sea. We managed to get down to a couple of lookouts on our way in, while making hastily for our campsite in Kalbarri township in the hope of getting stuff dry before sundown. It is different sort of gorge country from the Kimberley, or Karajini. We may get to explore more tomorrow, but the road into the park proper was closed on our way past today.

You can all stop being jealous now

Triple whammy today. The first was always going to happen. It is day 67, so we are two-thirds through, twice as close to coming home as going away. At this rate our 16500km so far will turn into about 25000 all up, or about 20% above the nominal distance I calculated.

The second was that we had our first pack up in the rain, with a tent that leaked, so pretty much everything was wet.

The third was the we have now passed south of the latitude of home. We can no longer have you jealous of us being up north for the winter. Still, it is spring tomorrow, so hopefully we have missed the worst of it.

Just so you know that we cover all of the important milestones, we had lunch at precisely the latitude crossover point. Here’s the proof…

Think of us poor souls suffering the elements as you tuck yourselves up in bed tonight.

Francois Peron

The early European history of this area made it anything but certain that the British would get the upper hand. The wide range of names applied reflect the Dutch and French attention the lands obtained. The Dutch first of all because of the proximity to the Spice Islands, now Indonesia. The French came later, as part of the Napoleonic empire building. Francoise Peron was a naturalist who visited in 1802 and 1805 while in his 20s. Had he lived longer, and his reports been more favourable, and the French interest in the Indian Ocean more persistent, then this report may well be in French. But none of that happened and so the interest in the area waned for another 50 years or so until the settlement came up from Swan River, now Perth, and that of course was British.

The day dawned fine and clear, but it took a long while to get going, and that coupled with the need to dry a few things out a little before we packed pretty much precluded making use of our second possible day at Monkey Mia. Instead, we headed out for a last look at the bay, this time in sunshine, and noted that the road to Francois Peron was open, so in we went.

First stop was Peron homestead. A working sheep station until the lease expired in 1992. It had a chequered history. With the complete lack of surface water in the area it would have been unviable until a bore driller in the area struck water 500m down. He decided to give up drilling and took up a pastoral lease instead. For nearly a century the fortunes waxed an waned, but even though the wool quality was high, the sand and twigs stuck in the fleece could never be removed, and so prices were low. The nature of the country precluded normal mustering, and so gathering the sheep for shearing was labour intensive.  The wool price crash of the 80s and 90s sealed the fate, and the last owners walked off the property at the expiry of the lease.

The whole property then became National Park and the station buildings have been preserved to show how a sheep station worked, especially at shearing time. There is also a hot tub, which makes use of the artesian water coming out at 40degC. We did not partake, owing to the lateness of the hour.

Cape Peron beckoned, and with such a fine day, and my memory of the stunning photos I had seen of the area, I could not resist. And it did not disappoint. The soft sandy track led 45km to the cape. On our arrival, we were greeted with stunning red sand dunes, white limestone cliffs, clear waters, seagrass beds, sea birds, dugong and dolphins. We were especially privileged to see the dolphin mustering method on the shore. We had seen videos of this at Monkey Mia, but to see it  live was simply stunning. I was too much in awe to take videos until late, and by this time I think they had a full belly, and so it was a bit half-hearted.

Dugong are not really photogenic from a cliff-top. Lacking the dorsal fin of the dolphins, there is little to see when they come up to breathe, but once you know what you are looking for, they are literally everywhere. Living a solitary existence, they are not in pods, so you don’t see groups of them, but we could easily see ten or more from our vantage point. Some people fishing from a small boat said yesterday they were literally right under their boat, and given that the seagrass grows in shallow water, they would have had a great view. Dugong are sea mammals, but are apparently more closely related to elephants than any other aquatic mammals. The only stable population in the world is in Shark Bay, all others being in decline, so this graceful and long-lived animal is globally threatened.

The road back was a little more adventurous than I had intended. Having had no trouble on the way out, I wasn’t really expecting any issues. However, a few hours drying from yesterday’s rain had reduced the road from an easy drive, into treacherous soft sandy bog holes. One of them got me. The most embarrassing part is that it got me twice. First time I backed out no problem, but on my second attempt, I got stuck in the same wheel ruts, failed to get to the side as I had intended, and wound up stuck fast this time in the same place now made even softer by my  previous bogging. Being in the middle of the road, it wasn’t long before our shovelling was supplemented by others wanting to get past. We did eventually get out under our own steam, but not until one of the late arrivals had decided to snatch me out, but the strap remained slack.

That wasn’t the end of the saga though. I made it through third time lucky, but our main Samaritan was not so fortunate, falling prey in much the same place. However he hadn’t dug himself in so badly, so a little more shovelling and a little less air and we were all on our way again.

All of that performance put us rather behind schedule on our plans for making a go at Kalbarri tonight, so after watching the sun set from Eagle Bluff, we made our camp at Nanga Bay, in what passes for a resort in these parts. It is a resort in name and camping prices only. It is really an excuse to give fishermen somewhere to camp, drink and swap stories.

Project Eden

As I may have mentioned before, the entire peninsula containing Monkey Mia, Denham, Francois Peron and other places has been set aside as a special wildlife refuge. The aim here is to rid the entire area of all feral animals with a  high-security vermin fence and to reintroduce species made locally extinct by habitat degradation and predation by feral cats and foxes.

With the sheep now gone, and a comprehensive baiting program having all but eliminated the fox population, the land is slowly regenerating, and the reintroduced species are starting to take hold. The one remaining serious problem is the feral cats and rabbits. The rabbits will never be eliminated by trapping, and so the main method is disease. The number of rabbits we have seen in the couple of days we have spent in the area shows there is still a long way to go. While the rabbits remain, they become the staple diet for the cats in the area, and so maintain the cat population. The cats are harder to control because they will not take baits. There is still a way to go here.

Here are some of the animals benefitting from Project Eden, as it has been dubbed.

     

Monkey Mia

The day dawned to rain. Easily our wettest day in prospect, with heavy skies, and rain overnight. Still, today was the day for the Monkey Mia dolphin experience, and we were not to be denied, so after some soggy bacon on the barbecue, off we went.

Monkey Mia is a resort of sorts that grew out of a beach shack type place in the 60s. There is nothing else there, and it is about 25km from Denham, the nearest town. The resort has grown with the fame of the dolphins, but that side of it now has a visitor centre and is managed by the Department of Conservation, similarly to National and Marine Parks.

Until the 1990s, the entire activity was unmanaged and large numbers of dolphins consumed huge amounts of fish, with people swimming amongst the feeding dolphins. That came to an end when a report commissioned found that the infants born to feeding females had a high mortality rate, being dependent on handouts. Unlike many animals, dolphins must learn to feed from their parents, and the method learned is dependent on local conditions. Parents looking for handouts are neither teaching their children, nor setting a good example. The behaviour of the animals became aggressive too, and so a management program was put in place.

Only five dolphins are fed. They are all well-identified and named. The five dolphins come from three family groups, with one group into its third generation from the original from the 1960s. Only females are fed. The dolphins only get about a tenth of their food from a single feeding session, which may only last ten minutes. Only three feeding sessions a day are held, all in the morning, and any one dolphin may only get one quarter of its diet from the handouts from its named bucket. No cheating! The dolphins must not be touched and the interaction is strictly regulated.

Quite apart from all of the rules, the dolphins are show-offs, and love the attention and are quite happy to cruise up and down for close inspection. The females, once mature, are always either pregnant or bringing up a calf to age 4 or so. The feeding females usually bring in their newborns within a day or so of giving birth, and so the family trees and birthdays are easily documented. Only offspring of feeding females will join the feeding band, but since dolphins live for around 40 years, most return to an entirely wild existence. Since there are thousands of dolphins in Shark Bay, the perceived effect on the wild population is deemed small.

Since the feeding sessions are so tightly regulated, only a small number from the crowd are actually chosen for the privilege. Louis and Elliot were both lucky to be chosen. We were probably aided in that luck by a relatively small crowd, caused perhaps by the lousy weather, which broke over Monkey Mia in time for our session. The visit was completed by a tour of the visitor centre and a National Geographic video of the wild behaviour of dolphins, filmed in part in Shark Bay.

On the way back to Denham, we would have visited Francois Peron national Park, but the rain we had overnight and in the morning was enough to close the road. Perhaps tomorrow.

The doubtful weather chased us indoors, so the Shark Bay World Heritage Visitor Centre was a logical choice. It covered the physical, cultural and natural features which attracted World Heritage listing, as well as the Aboriginal, and early European investigation from the 1600s into the 1900s, and the change from a pastoral to a conservation land use.

One of the major features of this area is a high-security electrified vermin-proof fence that effectively isolates the whole Shark Bay land area. This is feasible because all of that vast area is connected to the rest of the mainland by a narrow, 3km wide neck. The fence is 2.4m high and extends into the ocean on either end. There is even a barking dog sound triggered whenever a beam over the grid is broken in an attempt to stop feral cats and foxes from crossing into the area. This area has then been largely cleared of feral animals to allow the recovery and in some cases reintroduction of endangered native animals. This project “Eden” is so far showing some impressive results.

The weather cleared to a blue sky in the afternoon, although patchy. It didn’t allow our closed road to reopen, but was sufficient to allow us to explore the local wind generators and the bay. The wind generators contribute up to 1MW to the power requirements of the area, and saves and estimated 625000 litres of diesel each year.

Scoring with the Dolphins

  Monkey Mia today was a scene of rare good luck. Elliot and Louis would like to tell you that they were picked out of the crowd (along with perhaps 10 others) to have the honour of feeding a fish to Surprise, the friendly dolphin. I have video of the actual event, so no stills. If I was more organised I could put video links on the blog, but I’m not, so you’ll have to chase me when I get home.

Hello to all the animal-crazed friends in 1S!

Murchison to Shark Bay via an Old Relative

Murchison hung on to us for longer than we may have expected. Without needing to fix a tyre, I could make use of the daylight to look around. The caravan park and facilities had only been open for about a month and being the centre of the shire, the municipal facilities were all in the area. Also adjoining the polo field was an elaborate playground, shire offices and the rammed earth museum, which is really the only thing that makes it into the travel guides. The museum contains a huge range of artefacts primarily from the first half of the 20th century during which Murchison was riding on the sheep’s back. Horse racing, blacksmithing, telephone exchanges, school of the air radios, maps, weather reporting, kitchen and laundry utensils, machinery and furniture were all represented.

As far as I could tell Murchison had no more than 5 people that I could see. Yet the playground was as elaborate as you would see in a big city specialist park, and the diesel, at $1.38, almost capital city prices. I suspect there must be some huge subsidies going on somewhere.

A quick check of the tyre indicated all well, so off we went. The 180km back to the North Coast Highway was almost as deserted as yesterday, but the scenery was more varied. We had a certain amount of elevation to lose, and we came down in a couple of main jumps, rather than gently. The vegetation grew higher, and more varied flowers were around. The overlander roadhouse marked the turnoff to Shark Bay, and apart from buying some eggs from NSW, and some apples that were old and wrinkly enough to have come from Stanthorpe last winter, we delayed no longer. There is something odd about fresh food in this part of the country. The produce in Carnarvon, only a few hundred km north of here is first rate, yet somebody told me it all goes to Perth, from which some comes back up the coast after being distributed. We have seen none though. After seeing bananas from Qld here at Shark Bay, I think that may be right.

The Old Relatives part came at Hamelin Pool. Here are found stromatolites. These are colonies of cyanobacteria, or a type of blue-green algae, that as far as I can make out, photosynthesise inorganic matter, depositing it as a rock type structure and releasing oxygen. They grow in the hyper-saline conditions at the bottom of this long bay near Shark Bay, protected by a sandbar which washes over at high tide, then evaporates, increasing the salinity of the water. Stromatolites are believed to be the first forms of life on earth, responsible for releasing the oxygen entombed in the rock and creating the oxygen atmosphere that allowed the remainder of life on earth to form. Stromatolites were discovered as fossils originally, and were believed to be extinct, before the rock like structures in the Shark Bay area, some more further south in WA, and some in the Bahamas were recognised as being living stromatolites, thus linking back 3500 million years. An old ancestor indeed.

These deep bays also accumulate vast quantities of small shells. They are ideal as an alternative for gravel pathways, and when they have been on the beach for a while, cement themselves together, yet remain soft enough to be quarried and sawn into building blocks. The Hamelin Telegraph station and surrounding buildings used these blocks, but overexploitation has led to restrictions on their use to restoration of historic facilities. The loose shells, being seen as a renewable resource, are being extracted in a managed fashion.

On our way into Shark Bay our phones livened up for the first time in a week, and brought us some bad news. We were expecting to link up with Lynne’s parents in Perth next weekend, after their whirlwind tour of the WA West Coast, as far as Exmouth. That will no longer be happening as Poppy has been taken ill and is currently in hospital in Mackay, and hence they have needed to cancel their trip.

Denham is the town of Shark Bay. It is a funny combination of seaside resort and sleepy town. Being 850km from Perth, and hundreds of km from anywhere really, it is a little too far to take off in a big boom. However, being the jump-off point for Monkey Mia and the dolphins, and all of the other natural features of the surrounding world heritage area, it has a natural attraction, so development is happening. The front has a couple of hotels, and numerous accommodation facilities, petrol stations, and a couple of basic supermarkets. However, we had trouble finding a cheap and cheerful fish and chip shop open on a Saturday evening, and the almost complete lack of people out and about seemed a little odd.

The heavy overcast weather continued through today, but still the glare on the shell beaches around here was almost overwhelming. Perhaps that is keeping people quiet. We’ll see what happens tomorrow when we go dolphin chasing.