West Coast Day 131 - Shark Bay

It was time to leave Coral Bay and continue heading south. Our planned route would've taken us all along the coastline through a few properties and past 3 shipwrecks and the blowholes towards Carnarvon. We were looking forward to another few days of free beach camping. Unfortunately, we discovered that the properties have had to lock their gates to visitors due to people leaving too much rubbish behind. That meant we had to drive the 280km to Carnarvon along the tar. It was another boring stretch of road, which was so disappointing knowing that there was a fabulous coastline just a few hundred metres away that we couldn't see. We didn't mind too much, knowing there was a Woolworths in Carnarvon.

We stocked up and had a quick look around the town. We soon realised that there was not much point in staying in Carnarvon and continued along the tar for another 240 km to Shark Bay. It was a long driving day and we found the turnoff to Shark Bay around 5pm. We pulled into the first caravan park called Hamelin Pool Caravan Park and seeing no grass, no shade and very sparse surrounds we pulled out and drove on another 100km to the main town of Shark Bay called Denham. From there, it is only a 15 minute trip to see the famous bottle-nose dolphins at Monkey Mia. Although it was a long, tiring day it was worth it to finally be beside the water again.

It was nearing darkness as we arrived in Denham and Dorothy had decided to rent one the many cottages available on the beachfront to avoid having to put up the tent and fiddle around. The kids were hungry etc. We looked at the caravan park, also on the beachfront, next door to their cottage but it offered no protection from the howling wind. The Adcocks had a 3 bedroom cottage and invited us to stay, which cost us only $10. I cooked dinner for us all to make up the difference.

It felt strange to be inside a dwelling with 4 walls and a roof with a bathroom, kitchen, hot running water, and a real bed. I cooked Indian Butter Chicken with rice (cooked in the microwave!!!). We finished off the night with a few more hands of Mahjong and enjoyed not having to contend with a rickety table!