Francois Peron National Park is a large national park occupying the northern half of the Peron Peninsula in Shark Bay. It has arid shrublands, sandplains and circular depressions bounded by spectacular coastal scenery. Most of it is only accessible in high clearance 4WD. With increasingly large “monster” 4WD becoming popular, this makes sand tracks in national parks deeper and deeper creating clearance issues for even standard Pajeros and Prados.

The road to Monkey Mia

Wild bottlenose dolphins visit the shore at Monkey Mia Reserve. The crowds began to gather. People flock to this experience so thay have a porpoise in their lives.

Only one dolphin visits this morning.

There are usually two main family groups that frequent the shallows, but over 3000 dolphins live in the bay. For more than 30 years, researchers have been based at Monkey Mia documenting dolphin behaviour.

Parks and Wildlife Service staff hand out a limited number of fish to three handpicked volunteers who stand in the shallows and place the fresh locally caught fish in the water.

Red Cliff – the glowing red cliff is visible to the north of Monkey Mia.

Wulyibidi Yaninyina trail, a loop walk over dunes and along the beach leads through coastal sandplain, red sand dunes and the beach.

This is no laughing matter – Laughing Doves have become established in arid areas in the wild after being released from Perth Zoo in 1898.

Shark Bay from the dune top

Chiming Wedgebills have a beautiful call and are heard more than seen. They are very shy. They are closely related to whipbirds of the eastern Australian rainforests.

The track returns to the beach.

“It’s my tern to sing!”

This “osprey” was hovering above the resort.

People are used to pigeons or bin chickens foraging as they eat but this was a much bigger bird.

White browed babblers were active… but the real stars of the show were…

…Western Grass-wrens.

When they cross an open space, they rapidly dart like a roadrunner.

Salty depression and red dune

Driving back into Denham. Locals just seem to call it Shark Bay and Monkey Mia just Monkey.

An afternoon drive out to the Peron Heritage Precinct

The woolshed at Old Peron Homestead

The kitchen from the pastoral era of the Peron Peninsula. The old homestead closed to the public was built way back in the 1950s ( I am getting old!)

Dinner time!

Old windmill with kestrel nest

But the reason most visitors come here is a soak in the Artesian Bore Hot Tub. This was full but people kindly moved away so I could take the photo. I was invited in as I was the youngest man there at the time.

Huge numbers of conical ant nests lined the road

A skink enjoying the last of the day’s warmth….

…as was this little fella.

An exercise walk to finish the day along the Denham waterfront.

I think it’s time we had the difficult conversation about….shower curtains. The providers of our last 8 nights in three different accommodations have embraced the limp wet hangings. Maybe I am getting a bit soft after over 40 years of living with glass shower screens. Now these places rate well and get the basics right – good beds and hot water that didn’t go cold half way through while you are soaped up, But the cold embrace of plastic or fabric leaves me … well maybe I saw the movie Psycho at too early an age. But the Hitchcockian nightmare of having the villainous veil of viscose wrapping against one’s nether regions is sometimes too much to bear. Two of these fine establishments even had two sides of the shower cubicle curtained making one vulnerable on two fronts. Two also had fan venting directly above the shower cubicle so this further sucked the air creating a slight vacuum. And you know where the shower curtain ends up then. Showers should be a safe space where the all worries dissolve away in the warm wash without the sudden limp attraction (I swear they must put something in them that makes them electrostatically attract to your body). I don’t know if glaziers are in short supply in this part of the world or the water quality coats glass with 1 cm of mineral crust after every stay but I think its fair to ask that 4 star establishments consider a move away (and not get wrapped up) in this nightly nemesis of weary travellers.

Our shower from a previous accommodation