Billabong break; take a left to Shark Bay; Shell Beach… Woman, know thy limits; a scenic lookout’s backside; one ferocious feather duster; delightful Denham; Monkey Mia – what’s in a name?’; Ocean Park Aquarium; Review: Monkey Mia RAC
Kalbarri north to Monkey Mia is 399km, so four hours. Roy took over the wheel roughly halfway, at Billabong. (Yes, there’s a place called Billabong… actually, there’s another Billabong in the state of Victoria, and for all I know there could be several others.)
In case you were wondering, a billabong is an oxbow lake: a body of water that forms when a river changes course, leaving a section cut off from the new river.
Billabong Roadhouse is something of an institution, complete with proper coffee and vibey music. Faded photos from the sixties pinned up on the back wall – including one of a camel harnessed to a ploughshare – remind us that the place has been going since 1962. There’s even accommodation out back, perhaps mainly for truckers, and the pizza oven is fired up from 5pm to 8pm. Everyone stops at Billabong.
In fact, son Carl, Carrie and the girls overnighted there in their camper trailer on their way to Monkey Mia early in 2021.
Onwards from Billabong
We’re travelling off-season and the road is not at all busy. You have to pass the odd road-train and caravan; even so, this is comparatively easy driving on well-maintained roads. (And no roadworks anywhere – very different from our Queensland trip last year.)
Around 50km after Billabong, you take a left off the Great Northern Highway to Denham and Shark Bay. This is an enjoyable drive through the Peron peninsula, with occasional views of the Indian Ocean.
Shell Beach
I demanded that we take a look at Shell Beach, famous for a wide stretch of sand that is in fact composed of tiny shells.
He: “Do we absolutely have to?”
Me: “Yes, or we’ll have to come back especially, and you won’t like that.”
He (grudgingly): Oh, all right then.”
He was also less than impressed by the sight of four porta-loos in a glossy row, all closed for maintenance. (No worries, said the sign: there are toilets just 45km away, or 85km. Take your pick!)
A Scenic Lookout’s Backside (not)
When I requested another stop barely five minutes later, in obedience to a sign promising a Scenic Lookout, He really spit the dummy.
“That wasn’t a scenic lookout’s backside,” snarled He. You be the judge: here’s the photo I took – and He didn’t even get out of the car.
Clearly, those two stops had driven my husband to the end of his manly tether. After that, I could only gaze wistfully at signs for Eagles Bluff and other promising landmarks. (Woman, know thy limits.)
Next day, he sort of redeemed himself by stopping for me to photograph this road sign… and that after only three or four requests.
Or partially redeemed himself, considering what happened when we pulled off into a lay-by near Denham for me to take a pic of a filthy emu that was up to its hocks in a mud-pool.
One Filthy Feather-Duster
I rolled down the window. Please move forward Roy, I said: the wing-mirror’s in the way of my camera lens.
Get out of the car, cried my husband.
When I did get out, my bad feeling about that scruffy emu proved right: it reared up out of the mud-pool and alarmingly had a go at me. Hurriedly I backtracked, whereupon this ferocious feather duster viciously pecked the front left tyre of the Volvo before apparently doing its best to block us leaving!
Why did the emu cross the road? Who knows.
Denham, Shark Bay
You might expect the Shire of Shark Bay to look a bit menacing – maybe even with some ominous background music, duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh – but the entire Peron Peninsula, with its blue and gently lapping water, is anything but.
The holiday resort town of Denham is the only town in the shire. Our ultimate destination, Monkey Mia, is purely a resort, and is located a further 23km or so beyond Denham – so it’s a good idea to stop in Denham to stock up on fuel and whatever.
Denham has a pretty foreshore complete with palm trees, a children’s park, an IGA supermarket, hotels, cafés and the Shark Bay Heritage Centre ($11 entry fee).
Monkey Mia
Monkey Mia an odd name – especially as:
(a) There are no monkeys; and
(b) Mia – pronounced “Mee-ah” – is a highly popular girls’ name in Australia, but the place name is pronounced “Monkey My-ah”, as in mynah.
Its name may have been derived from the schooner Monkey, which either did or didn’t anchor near here in 1834, combined with the Aboriginal word for house or home, mia.
Dolphin Experience
You can understand why the TripAdvisor reviews of the Monkey Mia dolphin experience are mainly either one-star or five-star. It depends so much on weather conditions, and whether the dolphins make an appearance.
People travel a long way and spend over the odds for the rare opportunity to interact with wild dolphins. Son Carl, Carrie and the girls raved about their camping trip to Monkey Mia RAC in February 2021. Here are a few of Carrie’s shots, featuring Holly feeding the dolphins.
So, our first morning of two found me down on the beach at the appointed time of 7.45am, in a howling wind and with the sea so murky and disturbed that the dolphins – although they did come into the area for a while – were not close enough to be fed.
On the second day, the day of our departure, the morning dawned perfectly clear, warm and windless.
“Beautiful!”, I thought. We’re sure to see dolphins!
But no. I waited around with about a hundred other guests, wandered further along the bay, photographed the pelicans again, then hung my legs over the side of the jetty (where someone, not I, spotted a turtle) until the burly mate on the approaching Aristocat ordered me to back off because she was about to moor exactly where my knees were.
By 9am, still no dolphins.
Was I disappointed? A little – but not bitterly so. A couple of months ago, Lauren and I had the joy of swimming around 50 metres from two dolphins, just north of where Roy and I live in Burns Beach, Iluka. I’m lucky enough frequently to spot seals, rays and even the odd whale.
Ocean Aquarium
Returning from my first dolphin non-experience, I found Roy not only up, out of bed and brimming with tea, vim and vigour, but ready to head out to the Ocean Park Aquarium, located 10km back past the town of Denham.
This aquarium started off as a snapper breeding facility, and it’s well worth a visit. (You pay a $28 pp tour fee.)
Regular and highly informative tours around the various tanks are led by friendly, personable marine biologists: Talia spoke up clearly and had a wealth of knowledge.
We met an overtly friendly and hyper-venomous variety of sea snake found only at Shark Bay, then Steve the Squid, various poisonous/venomous box, puffer, lion and stone fish, and sea anemones with their attendant Nemos, before heading outside to bigger tanks to see larger rays, cod fish, sharks and more, learning a mine of fishy trivia along the way.
Though I’d love to know on what basis it’s been decided that octopuses, cuttlefish and squid are the world’s most intelligent creatures, with humans, dolphins and others trailing way behind. Sounds like a load of nonsense! What are the parameters?
If I were granddaughter Mia, I’d probably just ask Siri. Instead, I found a few studies, one claiming squid to be among the smartest invertebrates; no problem there. Another compared squid with rats and dogs; also feasible. As for the smarter-than-humans claim, Talia might just be stretching a point.
Monkey Mia RAC Resort
Accommodation
It’s true that Monkey Mia RAC resort offers accommodation at all levels to suit most budgets, starting from unserviced caravan sites. We bit the bullet for the most comfortable option – one of the new beachfront villas.
Daughter-in-law Carrie had personally checked out the other rooms, and said we wouldn’t like them; she was probably right.
Anyway, the discount you get as an RAC member (annual membership $29) softens the blow by 20% from $1,089 for two nights, to $871. (As Roy has said, in this part of the world you often have to pay five-star prices for two or three star accommodation, food and service.)
Our two-bedroom beach villa was located right on the beach, just beyond the main complex and the caravan site. Being new, it had welcome touches like USB ports next to the beds; and plenty of towels, linen and toiletries. Having a full kitchen (except for an oven) meant we could self-cater.
Monkey Bar and The Boughshed
With Happy Hour running from 5pm to 6pm daily, and the promise of $7 glasses of wine, it wasn’t easy to find a seat at the Monkey Bar, Monkey Mia’s casual bar and eatery. Once seated at an alfresco trestle table, it was very easy to while away the hour and a half until our 7pm dinner booking.
The Boughshed provides table service for dinner – something that’s seldom the case in WA. (Mostly, you’re expected to queue up at the counter to order and to pay.)
Apart from the good service here, we also loved our meal. We had half a dozen oysters: three natural ($4.50 each), three with finger-lime salsa ($5)… small, but delicious. Salt and pepper squid ($29) came Szechuan-flavoured and tossed with rocket; Black Angus carpaccio ($28) sprinkled with toasted pine-nuts and topped with rocket and shaved Parmesan. Potato fries ($9) with aioli, yum! And a glass each of Frankland cab merlot ($9) was quite enough after devoting 90 minutes to Happy Hour bubbles and chardonnay at the Monkey Bar.
A few more pics
