BoomerGirl Diary

Leaving Perth early in the morning, we travel north by bus to the lobster-fishing town of Port Denison. One note on the “We’ll put another shrimp on the barbie for ya” advertisements about Australia that were popular in the U.S. a while back: Australian lobsters do not have the large claws that the familiar “Maine” lobsters have, so they look more similar to what Americans call shrimp, but they are almost as big as our lobsters. Australians call these local sea creatures lobsters, prawns, or sometimes crayfish. If you ask for shrimp, you will likely get a blank stare.

After Port Denison, we continue north across the Greenough Flats, where the persistent wind from the west has created leaning trees. Some might even call them lying-down trees. A quick photo stop, and then we are back on the bus across rather desolate and enormous sheep farms (or stations). The earth has turned a red color, and we notice that there is the occasional kangaroo road-kill victim, each with a fan club of ravens. We spot some of the wild goats that share the meager grazing with the sparse herds of sheep. This is not the Outback, but it is probably as close to it as my husband and I will ever experience. The highway stations, or truck stops, are rustic and multipurpose general-store type businesses. They are few and far between.

We arrive at Shark Bay at sunset and stay at a comfortable, but not fancy, resort at Monkey Mia Beach. There are no monkeys at Monkey Mia, but there are some dolphins that have been arriving every morning for breakfast for many years.

The main event the next morning is a chance to swim with these dolphins. As we get off of the bus, one traveler asks if it is OK to swim now, at night. Our bus driver replies that anyone who can tell the difference between a shark and a dolphin in the dark is welcome to a nighttime swim. I think we all stayed on land that evening.

We learned later that diesel generators a short distance away powered our resort. This explained the near lack of outdoor lighting as we stumbled around, and the strong encouragement to conserve energy in our rooms.

The stunning highlight of this lack of light was the incredible starscape in the sky. It was a clear night and there was no moon. I have never seen so many stars! It was just breathtaking. City light pollution deprives most of us of an amazing sight.

The next morning the dolphins, all female and several with babies, arrived as promised, and a select few folks were chosen to help feed them. The dolphin rangers (who keep the crowds from crowding the dolphins and stop any unauthorized feedings) told us about each individual dolphin and her history. We had just time for a quick swim, and then it was back on the bus to go to the coastal town of Denham.

The people that we are traveling with on this leg of the tour are all extremely punctual. Our bus driver kept thanking us for being on time, but then he has to kill time before we can stop for meals. Our lunch in Denham was scheduled to be early, but we are too early, so we take a drive around the town during which we are surprised to see an emu stroll casually across a neighborhood street.

The very old and cozy building that houses our lunch stop was built out of blocks of compressed seashells that were cut from the next attraction on our tour. We visit Shell Beach, a blindingly white beach that has formed from the deposit of millions and millions of tiny white shells. These shells have piled up for uncounted centuries, and are many feet deep. The pressure has turned the lower layers of these shells into a shell conglomerate stone that colonists then cut into blocks and used to build houses and barns and the occasional town building.

Our next stop was the day’s highlight for me. We get to see a large area of actual living Stromatolites! Stromatolites are the result of the life and death of primitive one-celled cyanobacteria and other algae. These organisms grow in the shoreline and bind the sand particles together, resulting in successive layers that, over a long period of time, harden to form rock. For at least three quarters of the earth’s history, stromatolites were the main reef builders, constructing large masses of calcium carbonate. But their most important role in the history of the earth has been the oxygen they added to the earth’s atmosphere. Without stromatolites, the earth would not have an oxygen-rich atmosphere, and without oxygen, most of the rest of us would not be here. They deserve a great big thank you from all of us! Scientists had been aware of stromatolite fossils that were 3.5 billion years old for quite some time, and had given them the label of oldest known life on earth. But it was only recently that living stromatolites were discovered in this remote part of Australia. A wooden walkway has been built so we can walk out over the shoreline and above the stromatolites without harming them. They are unremarkable looking, mushroom shaped lumps of rock, quietly sending bubbles of oxygen to the surface. I give them my personal thanks for the air I’m breathing.

Back on the bus again, we visit Hawks Head, which is a spectacular red river gorge. We are finding out that those Australian hats that have corks hanging from strings along the brims are not jokes. The flies here are thick, and they love to sit on our faces. Anything that shoos them away would be welcome, no matter how silly looking.

Our final day in western Australia is spent visiting the Kalbarri coastal gorges and then the amazing moon-like landscape of the Pinnacles Desert. This dry, sandy area is studded with hundreds of limestone spires stretching out as far as we can see. These giant tombstone shapes were formed when an ancient forest sent roots down through a layer of limestone. When the trees died and the forest disappeared, those holes allowed the erosion of the stone layer to be hastened in some areas, leaving the many peaks of stone behind. Dark clouds of an impending storm make our time in this desert even more dramatic, so we quickly finish our hike and picture taking and climb on the bus to return to Perth.

In the end, we became quite fond of Perth and its surrounding countryside. But now it is time to catch a plane to the city of Cairns …