Nele & Andrew Around Oz: Edaggee Rest Area, WA (South of Carnarvon)

Day 81 – 8^th May 2011

Edaggee Rest Area, WA (South of Carnarvon)

This morning we visited Monkey Mia for the well famous dolphin feeding. We had to wait quite a while as these are wild dolphins that come in the bay so they are not really time trained, but eventually they came in and we actually had quite a big turn up – 10 dolphins. Even though more dolphins visit the bay, there are only 5 dolphins that they feed daily and only 3 of their 5 ‘feeding dolphins’ came in today. Each feeding dolphin receives 4 fish for which they pick some random spectators to feed them – and there are a lot of people to choose from as this is quite a touristy attraction. We weren’t picked but it was still fun to watch. In total they only allow the dolphins to stay in the bay for 30 mins as they need to go out to feed their calves and catch more fish, as those 4 fish are nowhere near their daily intake. Dolphin feeding is repeated up to 3 times before 12pm if the dolphins return. We didn’t see them again but instead went for a walk along the beach and of course a swim! Sometimes you can be lucky and dolphins come swimming with you here. Left Monkey Mia around lunchtime to continue our journey to Carnarvon (350kms away)– had to drive 150km back to the highway first as Shark Bay is situated on a peninsula. Had a stop to view Little Lagoon near Denham along the way. One thing we had to miss this time as you need a 4W drive is the Francois Peron NP and Steep Point (the most westerly point in Australia) but it sounds very nice so definitely on the to do list for our next trip which will need to be with a 4W drive.