Denham is a touch under 400km from Kalbarri
along the Brand Highway on a peninsula separating Shark Bay from Dirk Hartog Island.
The ocean side of the peninsula hosts the western most point of mainland
Australia, Steep Point. Twenty-eight km to the north east of Denham is Monkey
Mia, whilst a few km to the north covering the whole top section of the
peninsula is the entry to the Francois Peron National Park, our home for the
next 3 nights. On the way up into the Denham Peninsula, we stopped at Hamelin
Pool, which is home to ancient Stromatolites. These are single celled
organisms, which were the first living things on the planet so they’re billions
of years old. Impressed? I thought so. They look kind of like mushrooms made of
coral and rock about one to three feet high. It was very interesting and we all
appreciated being able to stretch our legs in such a pretty spot.
Stromatolites
We stopped in at the Denham Information Centre
on a very windy but sunny day, which was essential to help us plan out our next
few days. We were able to book and pay for our passes for a day at the Monkey
Mia Resort. It cost $19 for a family of 5, which gave us permission to attend
the dolphin interaction and use the resorts’ facilities for the day. The ticket
is open so we could choose any day to visit. We also were able to obtain the latest
information on weather predictions and the state of the track into the NP to
the various camps. There are 4 camps to choose from, Big Lagoon, South
Gregories, Gregories and Bottle Bay. You can’t actually camp at Cape Peron but
it is well worth the 70km trip up to the cape. We chose to stay at Big Lagoon.
It’s the closest and the 13km sand track to the campground was currently in the
best condition for a camper trailer.
Big Lagoon
Most of the time the two way single lane
track was corrugated and reasonably firm with only a few very soft sections
easily navigated. We arrived around 3pm and quickly setup camp in a sheltered
spot from the wind. The campground has a single, well maintained drop toilet
but no other facilities. It is situated right on a picturesque inlet, which is
an important spawning ground for whiting and pink snapper. Most importantly,
the site was not very busy with only a couple of other campers each night we
stayed, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. A fish that afternoon
landed a few small whiting, which were released to fight another day.
The next day dawned clear and windy however
we didn’t let that stop us exploring the national park. For the most part the
drive up is a reasonably easy one along hard corrugated sand. The track also
winds right through the middle of several gypsum clay pans, called Birridas. It
reminded us a bit of Lake Eyre. There were also some really fun soft sandy
sections, which would trap the unwary. We avoided South Gregories as the track
in looked pretty bad so we pulled up to Gregories. This campground is
beautiful, and close to some stunning scenery and top fishing spots.
Gregories Beach
After some more exploring we were back in
the car heading up to Cape Peron to try and see some sharks, mantas and
dolphins from the headland, which it’s famous for. Unfortunately the wind and
swell had completely stirred up the sandy bottom making it impossible to see
anything. It is still a stunning spot with high red cliffs falling into white
sand and very blue waters. After a light lunch we headed back to camp to relax
for the afternoon, as we would have to get up very early for our trip over to
Monkey Mia the next day. The first dolphin feeding was at 7.45am and it would
take us a good hour to get there from our campsite. We had a wonderful morning
at the resort but I’ll let Caitlin write about what she thought of the day.
Cape Peron
Once again we bumped into Paul and Sue
whilst there, which was a delightful coincidence once again. Grace has adopted
them as her surrogate grandparents and promptly invited herself to have lunch
with them. The rest of us went back to camp. The wind had completely died down
by this time and we had a wonderful afternoon on the beach of the lagoon. Paul,
Dad and Lachie fished without much luck although we did catch a 35cm squire
late in the day. Maria and Caitlin did some paintings while chatting to Sue who
had returned from lunch with Grace.
Caitlin's painting of Big Lagoon
The next stage of the trip was up to
Carnarvon for a night. You have to drive the 129km back down from Denham to the
highway, then a further 220km north. We again arrived early in the afternoon
and decided to stay at the Wintersun Caravan Park. We needed to charge
batteries, fill up with water and pick up supplies for the next leg of the
trip. Carnarvon is a main hub in WA for fruit and vegetables, which are cheap
and really tasty. Our main goal however was Quobba Station for the next 2
nights, a working sheep and cattle station about 60km north of Carnarvon right
on the ocean. Quobba is famous for it’s land based game fishing with Red Bluff,
somewhat of a mecca for fisherman and surfers alike. Each day fisherman would
arrive back to clean they’re catches of large red snapper, Spanish mackerel and
spangled emperor. I was extremely jealous but woefully under gunned in terms of
tackle required to have a go myself. ‘Balloon’ fishing is the preferred method
where the balloon is filled with helium and drifts out over the ocean with a
live bait swimming just under the surface of the water some 30 – 50 feet below.
Quobba sunset
The beach is full of massive clam shells
Red Bluff is about 60km north of the
station homestead. The road is graded and very corrugated in parts but we made
the journey in about 45 minutes. As we arrived I can honestly say Maria and I
experienced a similar sense of wonder and peacefulness. It’s hard to describe
but we were just calm, happy and felt like smiling. We spent the day swimming,
fishing and just drinking in the beautiful scenery of the dramatic red cliffs,
white beach and clear blue skies overhead. In hindsight, we would have
preferred to camp here instead. Definitely next time, as you felt like you could
almost stay here forever. As we were packing up to leave, just to top the day
off, we were treated to 3 or 4 whales playing, splashing and breaching only a
few hundred metres offshore. What a day!
Red Bluff Beach
I'm a good dancer!
Caitlin's painting of Red Bluff
We arrived back to camp just in time to
cleanup, pour a glass of wine and head down the pretty little beach opposite
the homestead and watch the sunset. To top off the day we briefly met a guy
with 2 young kids from Currumbin, who’d been on the road for nearly 12 months.
He mentioned another station, Warroora (pronounced Warra) not far to the north
where you could camp on the beach and catch spangled emperor right off it. This
is the great thing about this kind of travelling, these chance encounters,
which can shape your trip in ways you can’t plan for.
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