Monkey Mia, Western Australia - Dolphins, Dugongs and Shells Aplenty

The youtube video that prompted this trip to Monkey Mia. 

Driving in from Perth to Denham is a straight 8.5 hrs journey. Hence, the trip needed to be well planned to minimize the time spent on the road. 

Monkey Mia from Denham is short 30 minutes drive. We planned to stay in Denham because more choices of accomodation and food. While at Monkey Mia, you can only stay at Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort and food can only be obtained from The Boughshed, the resort's restaurant. 

So what are things to do a Monkey Mia? None other than dolphin experience, a marine cruise and shell beach. Nothing fancy. Yes, I couldn't agree more.

Monkey Mia Dolphin Experience

The dolphin experience at the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort will begin at 7.30 am and held at intervals till 12 pm in the afternoon. You will see guests gathered along the beach and that's when you know the dolphin feeding is about to begin. 

You may get a chance to feed the dolphin if you are selected by the guides. The dolphins are fed with 3 fishes per feed. 

And before the last fish the guide will raise the hand to indicate that she is left with one fish. It is highly likely that you do not get a chance to be selected at all. 

The pelicans are the neglected birds here at Monkey Mia. You can still attempt to take pictures with them. But with them being wild and all, please be careful. 

Monkey Mia Wildsights Cruise: Sail with the animals and free sunset cruise

After the Monkey Mia dolphin experience, we hopped on over for our marine safari experience. Our cruise starts at 10 am, which is soon after the first dolphin experience. I remembered gobbling down the hot breakfast after the cold morning at the beach.

The weather forcast for today was not ideal. Clouds are overcast and the skies look gloomy. Drizzles was expected on this cruise. 

Try as they might, the sibling duo that helmed the boat cab could only spot a miserable dugong on this trip. And I only manage to get a glimpse of grey from afar. 

Due to the poor weather conditions, we are asked if we wanted to continue with the sunset cruise or to come again tomorrow. 

Alas, we are the only couple that say we are continuing the cruise today and yes that's because we are leaving in Denham in late afternoon. The sunset cruise that we have booked for is eventually cancelled and apologies is all we gotten. :( So unfortunate.

Morning walk and picnic at Eagle Bluff lookout

This place at Eagle Bluff lookout along Eagle Bluff road is suppose to be the place to be for sightings of sea turtles, rays and sharks. Well, although the sun is up and shining today. We see only the waters. 

The island in front, is Eagle island, once mined for guano (bird droppings).

A great place to carry out the morning breakfast picnic we had on our minds since day 1. And just enjoy the sea view and a cup of coffee.

Shell Beach

Shell beach is a beach located 45 km south-east of Denham. This place is so-named because of the shells from cockles which grows in abundance in the area. The shells over time formed a limestone called coquina. This coquina was previously mined and used for construction of buildings in Denham. An example will be the Old Pearler Restaurant at Denham.

The Shell beach is the only 2 beach in the world covered in shells. 

The cockles are so so tiny. Strangely, at Kalbarri restaurants I see them having shark bay's cockles on the menu but once i'm at monkey mia, I don't see this any where on any menu. Hence, I felt it is a shame that I didn't manage to try the cockles.

It is easy to walk out the beach for many many metres out in the calm bay. The waters are all clear and you can see the floor clearly.

This summed up our time spent at Monkey Mia. Nothing too exxxciting. I think i enjoyed the day trip to Francois Peron much much more. Maybe if the marine safari cruise has more marine animal sightings it may make the trip more enjoyable. On further research, a more rustic experience at Dirk Hartog with a marine safari may be more engaging. It may be a little too late for me but you can consider incorporating it to your itinerary. 

Family with kids will enjoy the dolphin experience as i can imagine the kids going ga-ga over the dolphins. And them being kids, they have a much much higher chance to be selected by the guides to feed the dolphins and you can get so close to the dolphins.