HOLIDAY......................
Hi! Firstly the holiday was FREAKIN AWESOME!!! We stayed up at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay! All of Shark Bay feels like a tropical island, somewhere else on island time! It is part of the mainland haha but is on what looks like a peninsula that is narrow enough at the entry point to almost be an island.
On Thurs night BF and I went up to stay at a property near Lancelin where we met up with BF's sis and her BF. We crashed the night and were up and left at 6am for the big trip to Monkey Mia. The place where we stayed near Lancelin was BF's sis's BF's parents place! Confused haha? Anyway the parents lent us their nice comfy flash ute for the trip!
We stopped off at Geraldton on the way up for a look and to do some jobs, then headed up to Monkey! Very exciting for me cause of new territory as I'd never been north past Geraldton, (except when I flew up to Broome for a holiday in 2007). We stopped off at Shell Beach for a pic! This beach has no sand, - is completely made of shells and goes for over 100km! And I aquainted myself with what WA roadhouses look like! On the way into Monkey we dropped into Denham for supplies, then headed in! Swim was first on agenda, followed by meeting up with BF's sis's mates and having a BBQ and drinks with them!
Following day we were up early morning to watch the ritual dolphin feeding in Monkey Mia! Here about 5-6 dolphins come to shore every morning! We aren't allowed to touch them but we got some awesome photos! I LUV dolphins! After a BBQ brekkie we all headed off to Ocean Park near Denham where we saw and learnt about lots of marine life! Quickly ya know sea snakes aren't dangerous, (I wouldn't swim with them but)! We even saw sharks and I have pics! Plus much more!
Next we headed off four wheel driving down the beaches through sand tracks where we stopped off at some awesome various beautiful beaches for some swims and we also were lucky to see much sealife in it's natural state as the water was so clear! These beaches are a combo of red rock, sand, reefs, water of different colours and the bright blue sky and the odd bit of greenery! BF owns 2 snorkelling sets and we both went for a snorkel on the reef which was awesome and we saw some good stuff! One of the guys went fetching oysters and got some!
On the way back we ducked into a hot pool, (like a thermal type of thing). This was when the day had cooled down from about 38 degrees to 28 celcius in the early evening haha! We had tea and a couple of drinks down at the resort and bravo me crossed something else off my 'to do' list that night hahaha! Anyone who can make a correct guess gets a 'thumbs up' from me!!! So come on, have a punt???
We had a bit of a sleep in, (and me a walk) the next day, then headed to the restaurant for brekkie! Next we organised ourselves to hop on a sailing boat at 9.45 for a 2.5 sailing cruise to watch out for sealife. The guides yelled when there was something like a dolphin or dugon say 50 metres away in whatever direction it was, then those that wanted to jumped up fast and tried to race to best area to take a pic or wait for sealife to pop up for a breath. We were given polarised sunnies to wear for the trip. I wasn't quick enough to get any decent photos here but saw lots!!! And the sailing boat had a nice strong rope hammock in middle to lie on!
Next was lunch at resort, then we headed into Denham for a 3 hour quad bike safari trip!!! On road, on dirt tracks, 4 wheel drive motorbiking on hilly sandy seaside, contending with uneven tracks and rocks! BF couldn't wait for this one adventure!!! I admittably was shitting myself a bit about this as I'm very lets say inexperienced on motorbikes and have only driven a motor vehicle twice last year, (then not for years before)! I do have my licence so was able to do it! We all had our own motorbike!
I started out very slow and tour guide started giving me a little shit on how nervous and slow I was and hoped I wasn't that nervous in a car! Anyway I soon got a bit faster on the straight and reached a top speed of 47kmph on dirt track and cruised at that. I was a little slower on all the tight corners and uneven surfaces but! I learnt to accelerate hard and go up steep sand hills, (did get stuck once though and guide got me out by reversing bike!) What goes up must come down so we got to go down steep sand hills with the odd small rock to swerve around! There was one particularly scary corner where the track was tilted one direction instead of flat so if sitting upright I'd feel I'd fall off the bike. Was instructed to lean the other way and I made it round the corner! We stopped at various points along the way for a rundown and photos! A very scenic trip! I was rather impressed as I managed to start and stop the bikes by myself! Anyway, had a ball on that trip and so much fun and I'm up for more motorbiking now!!!! It's excellent fun!
We had a big tea together at the Heritage restaurant at Denham, very nice!!! Then we drove back into Monkey, packed, then bed for an early 6am rise to get on the road early! We left at Monkey at 6am, got back to the place where we stayed at near Lancelin at 1.45pm! Then a BBQ lunch, then back into Perth! BF and I went down to the sky show in the evening.
It was all fabulous! I've uploaded a heap, (25 pics) to facebook! Am not sure if my profile is available for public view or not, (will look). So search Pip Dodds if keen! Here are a couple anyway!
