We head down into the town in the morning to speak to visitor centre and get fuel. At the visitor centre we say we’re interested in getting up into the Francois Peron National Park and they confirm that it really is 4wd only, with very soft sand and deep tyre channels. We book a tour to get up there instead and then walk down the main street in Denham. There is supposed to be a resident population of emus which walk the main road here, but we don’t chance across any…yet
The sun beats down overhead in another glorious West Australian day. Just before we reach Shell Beach here’s a turn out which gives a view along the coast. The shimmering clear-green water runs out to the horizon, meeting a pale blue sky. Looking further up, a band of puffy clouds interrupts the pale blue until the sky directly above us deep blue and perfect. The sun is generously warm and the ground absorbs its heat, now hard and dry.
Down on the beach millions and millions of tiny shells stretch as far as I can see. There’s some condition (salt content?) which makes for excellent shell living conditions, and we walk on the evidence of that. Few people venture far along the beach, so we take a walk a little way. In the quiet of a gentle breeze, we bask in the sun and take lunch.
Retracing our drive to Eagle Bluff, we walk along the boardwalk. The elevation over the sea creates a vantage point for looking for marine life in the clear water. The signs list animals we might see, but today we don’t spot anything (except a pretty good likeness of Anna – the Nervous Shark).
To have a closer look at some animals, our next stop is the Ocean Park Aquarium.
Initially the aquarium operated to rebuild the population of pink snapper which had been almost fished to exhaustion. As other opportunities to grow or protect other fish, they setup tanks and equipment. We tour the aquarium, looking at stonefish, eels, snakes and rays at indoor tanks – then larger animals in the outdoor tanks. The sharks were impressive to watch winding their way through the water. At the end I enjoyed laughing at some people pulling faces at a fish who liked to squirt water at them.
Back at the caravan park the school holiday chaos is well underway. Kids are running about playing and getting in trouble. I almost feel guilty to happily cook dinner with a wine and watch the drama unfold.
One site over there’s a family who arrived yesterday. They were in a panic, looking for a nurse because the dad had hurt himself and the mum was furiously saying that the holiday was already ruined, one day in! (Having heard today about the pain and abundance of stonefish, we decided that he must have stood on one). Now tonight the kids are being constantly yelled at by the mum while the dad sulks by the BBQ with a beer. It grows more aggressive as she starts really trying for a fight with anyone who will acknowledge her – the family has clearly dealt with this before. Pretty sure the kids will refer to the ‘2021 Shark Bay Holiday’ to their therapists in a few years!
Much later in the evening we fall asleep guiltily smiling and listening to the continuation of this tension next door.
