{"id":3969,"date":"2017-09-10T17:01:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-10T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.stillaslife.com\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2017-09-08T21:55:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T11:55:19","slug":"monkey-mia-to-kalbarri-darwin-to-perth-day-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/monkey-mia-to-kalbarri-darwin-to-perth-day-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Monkey Mia \u00e0 Kalbarri - Darwin \u00e0 Perth Jour 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plus nous voyageons vers le sud, plus cela devient touristique, mais cela n'enl\u00e8ve rien \u00e0 cela. Monkey Mia est connu pour ses dauphins sauvages, et au sein m\u00eame de Monkey Mia, il n'y a qu'un seul endroit o\u00f9 s\u00e9journer, le RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort.<\/p>\n

\"RAC<\/a>
RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After spending the night here though, it\u2019s quite a treat to have breakfast in the morning and be able to go see the dolphins right near the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
Nous n'\u00e9tions pas les seuls \u00e0 attendre les dauphins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately, the dolphins are kept wild, and tourists are not permitted to feed them or interact with them beyond a short, supervised period in the mornings when the dolphins are in the bay.<\/p>\n

\"Watching<\/a>
Regarder les m\u00e9duses en attendant\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, that means the dolphins come and go as they please, so don\u2019t plan on seeing them and leaving early!<\/p>\n

\"Waiting<\/a>
En attendant les dauphins pr\u00e8s de la jet\u00e9e<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Make sure to block out a decent chunk of time and have a backup in case they do come thick. In other words, have two plans. If they arrive early, we\u2019ll do this, and if they arrive late, we\u2019ll do this.<\/p>\n

\"Yay<\/a>
Yay, voici un dauphin\u00a0!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, our experience was that we went down to the beach at 7:30 am, but the dolphins didn\u2019t arrive until 8:43 am.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The dolphins come right up to the water’s edge, but you do have to stay still and in a line so they can see you and check you out at their own pace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had decided at 8:30 am that if they didn\u2019t arrive by 9:00 am we would have to just get going. The dolphins did visit us though, coming just in time and staying until 9:10 am, so we got to see them for almost half an hour before they left and we had to go too.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a>
Matt et l'un des dauphins !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The number of dolphins that come in each morning varies, as does the duration of their visit. While we were there, we had two dolphins most of the time and two others that came and left and at different times.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
L'un des chercheurs avec deux des dauphins qui sont venus dire bonjour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you are lucky, you also could be one of just a few people who is picked to hand feed them a small amount of fish. By limited, I mean one person per dolphin and only a couple of pieces of fish each. It’s small enough that the dolphins still have to find food and don’t become dependent on tourists. It also means that they don’t hang around begging for food and neglecting their young, forcing them to grow up without learning how to find food.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One lucky person getting to feed this dolphin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Petit Lagon<\/h3>\n

On the way back towards Denham, we stopped in at Little Lagoon.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/a>
Petit Lagon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t on our itinerary, but I saw something jump out of it as we were driving past, so we checked it out. It turns out that schools of mullet come into the lagoon and can be seen jumping from the water. There\u2019s also a possibility of seeing shovel-nosed rays. We went for a walk in the shallow water to see if we could spot any, but unfortunately no luck.<\/p>\n

\"Wandering<\/a>
Se promener dans le petit lagon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We walked out about 30 metres into the lagoon, and it barely got above knee height for me, the water is so shallow. There are lots of plants in the water though, some of which look a little unusual, so you do need to watch your step.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Certaines des plantes \u00e9tranges de Little Lagoon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denham<\/h3>\n

Back in Denham, we stopped in at the Shark Bay Discovery Centre, aka the visitor information centre.<\/p>\n

\"Shark<\/a>
Centre de d\u00e9couverte de la baie des requins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a modern, information centre with a mural outside that points towards the wreck of the HMAS Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Le HMAS Sydney<\/a> wreckage mural.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inside, there is a decent amount of freely accessible information on the ship wrecks in the area including the Batavia, Trial, Zuytdorp, Zeewijk and Vergulde Draeck.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Learning about shipwrecks off the coast from Denham.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s even a 3D underwater film of the Batavia wreckage which is cool.<\/p>\n

\"3D<\/a>
Film 3D de l'\u00e9pave du Batavia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is also a paid museum with a cost of $11 for adults. Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t have time to check it out, so we kept going.<\/p>\n

\"Entry<\/a>
Frais d'entr\u00e9e pour la section payante du centre de d\u00e9couverte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denham itself is a quaint place with a beautiful beach.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>
En route pour Denham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It would be quite a nice spot for a beach holiday in my opinion.<\/p>\n

\"Wouldn't<\/a>
N'aimeriez-vous pas simplement vous d\u00e9tendre ici pendant un moment?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eagle Bluff<\/h3>\n

Heading out of Denham back towards the North West Coastal Highway there are a surprising number of things to see. The first is Eagle Bluff, located about 24km\u2019s or 25 minutes from Denham. Coming the other way, it\u2019s about 113km\u2019s from the Highway. The last 4km\u2019s on Eagle Bluff road though are dirt, and it\u2019s in desperate need of grading, so depending on what you are driving it can be slow going.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
La vue sur Eagle Island depuis Eagle Bluff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once you reach the Eagle Bluff car park, there is a raised board walk you can follow for about 50 metres for the best view.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
La promenade \u00e0 Eagle Bluff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is also a shortcut in the form of a dirt path from the car park out to the viewing platform.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>
Plan de Eagle Bluff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s still about 35 metres though, so I\u2019d take the board walk if I was you and enjoy the view the whole way.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Retour sur le d\u00e9but de la promenade en planche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you are short on time though, the view from the car park is pretty fantastic anyway, looking out towards Eagle Island and the nearby cliffs!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
La vue depuis le parking !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So if you are there at the right times of year and you are lucky, it\u2019s possible to see all sorts of sea creatures in the ocean below including lemon sharks, cow tailed stingrays, nervous sharks, loggerhead turtles and giant shovel-nosed rays. I\u2019m pretty sure we saw one of the giant shovel-nosed rays! It\u2019s remarkable how visible they are from so high above.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The water is crystal clear, look out for the moving shadows!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plage Shell<\/h3>\n

Next stop on the way back to the highway is Shell Beach.<\/p>\n

\"Shell<\/a>
Plage Shell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s about 30km\u2019s from Eagle Bluff, 45km\u2019s from Denham or 85km\u2019s from the highway and is just off Shark Bay Road. On the way, we were kind of excited to hit 333,333 km’s on the camper van odometer!<\/p>\n

\"333,333<\/a>
333,333 kms!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is a short, unpaved 40-metre walk from the carpark to the start of the shell dunes and another 60 metre (approximately) walk across the dunes to the water’s edge.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Les dunes vallonn\u00e9es de Shell Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The walk out to the dunes is easy, the walk across them is a bit harder. While the dunes are firm to walk on, they roll up and down a lot with a reasonably steep bank so they may be a challenge for some.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The brilliant white shells and steep bank down to the water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the edge of the dunes though, you can immediately see what makes this beach so unique. It is brilliantly white and made up of millions and millions of Fragum Cockle shells.<\/p>\n

\"Millions<\/a>
Millions of Fragum Cockle shells<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are over 4000 of these cockles living in one square metre of the hyper saline water found here in the L\u2019haridon Bight.<\/p>\n

\"Shells<\/a>
Shells everywhere!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Considering in places on the beach that the shells are up to 9 metres deep, one can only imagine how many are actually making up this 70 km long beach. Remarkably, it turns out that below the surface layers these shells actually turn into a form of limestone called coquina. This\u00a0process occurs as rain containing carbon dioxide dissolves the shells, glueing them together. There actually used to be a \u201cshell block\u201d quarry nearby for mining this limestone.<\/p>\n

Piscine Hamelin<\/h3>\n

Continuing back along Shark Bay Road, the next place we stopped was Hamelin Pool to see the Stromatolites and microbial mats.<\/p>\n

\"Hamelin<\/a>
Piscine Hamelin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is about 62km’s from Shell Beach, and you can drive it in about 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a>
Matt \u00e0 la piscine Hamelin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s also about 107km’s from Denham and 35km’s from the North West Coastal Highway turn off. The car park can be accessed via the Hamelin Pool Caravan Park and Telegraph Station, but it’s a bit of a rough, dirt track out. At least it’s short though. Once you get there, it’s only a 200 metre walk out to the stromatolites (400 metres return). The walk is in two parts, a relatively smooth dirt track followed by a board walk over Hamelin Pool.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
La promenade de la piscine Hamelin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s an easy walk out there, and what you will see varies depending on the tide.<\/p>\n

\"Onto<\/a>
Sur la planche \u00e0 pied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For us, the tide was out, so many of the microbial mats and stromatolites were exposed, with some partially submerged.<\/p>\n

\"Exposed<\/a>
Stromatolites expos\u00e9s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If the tide is in though, then you will see a lot more submerged. The surrounding area is pretty arid and doesn’t look like much of anything at all.<\/p>\n

\"Microbes<\/a>
Would anyone like some microbes?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once you get down to the water though, you get to see something pretty unique. If you’ve never seen these quirky life forms before, they are pretty odd looking. Some look like rocks that are cracking up. Some look more like mould, particularly when they are above the water line.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Certains des tapis microbiens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike rocks though, the stromatolites generally appear smaller at their bases and get larger towards the top. They also seem to all be separate, where big rocks at the beach often seem to be part of a larger rock.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Quelques stromatolites denses \u00e0 Hamelin Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Make sure to have a close look at what’s going on in the water. We actually spotted some little schools of fish swimming in amongst the partially submerged stromatolites. Then, of course, there are the birds preying on the sea life.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/a>
Petits poissons !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Be careful though and make sure to stick to the board walk. These formations are delicate and easily broken.<\/p>\n

Back on the road and arriving at Kalbarri<\/h3>\n

We noticed a lot of these little melons all along the side of the road.<\/p>\n

\"Melons<\/a>
Melons, melons everywhere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was tempted to try one, but it turns out they are an inedible pest, so best not to chow down!<\/p>\n

\"Here's<\/a>
Voici un de ces melons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just wait a little longer and you will find the Billabong roadhouse on the highway!<\/p>\n

\"Billabong<\/a>
Billabong Roadhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So we stopped there for a bite to eat before turning off to Northampton via Kalbarri where we spent the night at the\u00a0Parc de caravanes de la rivi\u00e8re Murchison Kalbarri<\/a>. It was evening by the time we arrived, so we just hit the sack and got some sleep, but the sunset was pretty spectacular.<\/p>\n

\"Sunset<\/a>
Sunset from the Murchison River Caravan Park Kalbarri<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus nous voyageons vers le sud, plus cela devient touristique, mais cela n'enl\u00e8ve rien \u00e0 cela. Monkey Mia est connu pour ses dauphins sauvages, et au sein m\u00eame de Monkey Mia, il n'y a qu'un seul endroit o\u00f9 s\u00e9journer, le RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wordproof_timestamp":false},"categories":[1427,1234],"tags":[295,2042,1237,2052,1481,1479,2036,2039,2048,2049,2040,1480,2038,2037,2050,2051,1478,2053,1637,2046,1238,2034,539,2047,2041,1482,2045,1434,2044,2043],"country":[],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-tripping","category-travel","tag-australia","tag-batavia","tag-beach","tag-billabong-roadhouse","tag-denham","tag-dolphins","tag-eagle-bluff","tag-eagle-island","tag-fragum-cockle","tag-hamelin-pool","tag-hmas-sydney","tag-kalbarri","tag-lagoon","tag-little-lagoon","tag-microbes","tag-microbial-mats","tag-monkey-mia","tag-murchison-river-caravan-park","tag-museum","tag-north-west-coastal-highway","tag-ocean","tag-rac-monkey-mia-dolphin-resort","tag-shell","tag-shell-beach","tag-ship-wreck","tag-stromatolites","tag-vergulde-draeck","tag-western-australia","tag-zeewijk","tag-zuytdorp"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stillaslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DTP-Day-12-Monkey-Mia-to-Kalbarri-28.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&quality=89&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}