Shark Bay

On July 19 we turned West off the North Coast H'way and toward the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Our lunchtime stop was the amazing Hamelin Pool where we checked out the ancient Stomatolites that grow there. Stromatolites are colonies of micro-organisms that resemble the oldest and simplest forms of life found on earth around 3 billion years ago. They grow here because of the ultra salty water and lots of calcium bicarbonate from the massive amount of shells here. It was very interesting. Continuing on we found a great free camp at Eagle Bluff right on the beach with cliffs of sand overlooking turquoise waters full of sharks, whales and dugongs (we didn't see any). In the morning we drove to Monkey Mia and spent the next 2 days camped in this beautiful resort where we fed dolphins, swam, played on the beach and relaxed. It was great! Our final overnight stop in Shark Bay was at the Nanga Bay Resort which had well and truly passed its use by date and desperately needed a lot of maintenance and basic attention. But it was only $25 per night and was right next to another beautiful Shark Bay beach. We also visited Shell Beach whick is covered in cockle shells that are metres deep. The water was absolutely freezing but Ashleigh managed to have a dip.