Day 25 (11/28); Karratha to Monkey Mia; 980 km; Monkey Mia YHA Hostel
Day 26 (11/29); Monkey Kia to Port Denison; 530 km; Caravan Park
First worthy of mention on this post was my night in Karratha. Here I ended up camping in a caravan park frequented mostly by "homeless" working folks, some of whom had campers, some of whom slept in their vehicles (parked in grassy "tent area" see below). After Broome, this was a breath of fresh air. Three of these guys hanging out when I arrived quickly struck up an interesting/friendly conversation, offered me a beer and a feed (dinner), and though hard-core working stiffs, were generally just nice guys. It was delightful and they were a hoot. Oh, like many caravan parks (with trees and water), this place was overrun with birds, many whie cockatoos.
Ok, though Karratha was nice, the highlight of this trip section was definitely Monkey Mia. Nice hostel, beautiful beach setting, and unique dolphin experience. Quick history lesson: Dolphins already frequenting this area used to follow fishing boats into Monkey Mia looking for cleaning scraps (1960's); a local woman started feeding them (late 60's); someone started selling buckets of fish to tourists who fed lots of dolphins all day (originally just a few tourists until they paved the road in then lots of tourists; 70's); dolphin juviniles started dying because moms fed at beach all day weren't teaching them how to survive (80's); government steps in to control situation (mid 90's I think).
Now, only five specific named female dolphins known to already have survival skills are fed no more than 20% of their daily fish needs each day between 8 am and noon. There is also a strict no-touch policy. So, up to three times each morning, the "annointed" dolphins swim into feeding area and just lay in the water until the rangers/volunteers feed them their two or three fish (from steel buckets--see picture); then they leave and we/humans leave. While this is going on, other dolphins (including children and grandchildren of moms getting fed) are frolicking around nearby in the water. It is a bit corny/silly but seems like a sustainable setup and it was cool to see the dolphins so up close.
Other than Karratha and Monkey Mia, the other notable item of this leg was that I moved south far enough that the weather has cooled off enormously. It still gets pretty warm inland during the day but nights are now in the low-60's--great sleeping temps. Yay. Enjoy the pics, hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. They don't celebrate it here at all so I had no turkey although my fellow campers did give me some chicken they had cooked up.
Also, as you can see from the stats above, I'm doing way too much driving, but there is a reason. Based on changing from riding to driving the "big loop" portion of this trip,I decided a while back I would probably return to the states prior to my originally planned 2/17/09 date. Contacted Qantas on 11/27 and found out I could only fly home with no penalty on Christmas day; pay big bucks to change to another January date, or stay with my original date. I have opted for the Christmas date. I hope I am making the right decision, doesn't feel completely "right" (whatever that means), but the riding I still plan to do will only take about three weeks (up until late December), so this date seems to make sense versus the alternatives.
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