Lap of Oz: Days 91 and 92 Hamelin

Day 91

Today we left Carnarvon and headed to Hamelin Station Stay. On arriving, we were shown around the place and given the opportunity to pick our own site. We choose site 7 and set up our van. We found this station stay on WikiCamps and as it sounded a lot better than the caravan parks in Denham, we decided to stay here, and we were not disappointed. Although we had no power or water to the van, the amenities and facilities were awesome. The boys really loved the fresh tank water, that you can use as much of while you are there, but are not able to fill the van tanks with it.

The female toilets and showers were very clean and tidy.

These signs were stuck to the back of all the shower and toilet doors. Each one with a different quote!

Then we headed off on the 4.5km drive to the Stromatolites. Hamelin Pool is home to the most diverse range of living stromatolites in the world.

On the way home, we drove through the caravan park near the Stromatolites and had a look at the old telegraph station.

On arriving back at Hamelin Station, we had a look at the Shearing Shed situated on the property. It contains over 135 years of history! The boys learnt a lot about how the sheep were shorn and what happened to the wool once it had been removed from the sheep.

Just before the sun set, we headed for a walk around the lagoon, also situated on the property.

We cooked tea in the kitchen and watched the sunset before heading off into our warm caravan, as the temperature has been starting to drop again at night.

Day 92

We were up very early the next morning. 5:15am in fact!! The boys were not really keen on moving, but the thought of seeing wild dolphins eventually got them moving.

We drove 1 1/2 hours to get to Monkey Mia, hoping to see the dolphin feeding. We arrived right on 8am and were unable to get into the line up on the beach, so we stood on the boardwalk and watched the first dolphin feeding.

After this feeding, we headed up to the shop to have a look around. There is a board on the outside of the shop which had the last two days times for the dolphin feedings on them. The second feedings were always around 9am and the third around 10am, so as it was already nearly 8:30am, we decided to hang around to see the second feeding.

After a quick look in the shop, we headed back down to the beach. There was one dolphin playing in the shallow water and as we were watching it, we heard them say they were about to do a second feeding, so we stayed put.

After the talk and watching the dolphins play, the buckets were brought down for the feeding. We were all asked to move back out of the water. This is to tell the dolphins that the feeding is about to begin.

The dolphins were fed and they were all down to their last fish and we hadn’t been chosen yet. The boys were really hoping to feed the dolphins, but it didn’t look very likely. Then the volunteers were asked to choose the last people to feed the dolphins. Hubby was chosen, but he let our boys go together to have this amazing experience.

The boys heading out to feed ‘Surprise’ the dolphin.

Getting handed the dead fish.

Feeding the dolphin together!

Yay!!!

Pointing to the poster about ‘Surprise’ the dolphin they fed. They were so excited!! They rate this as one of the best experiences they have had so far! So maybe the $17 National Park Fee was worth it!

After they settled down, we headed off into Francois Peron National Park (another National Park fee). we had a good look around the homestead and another sheep shearing station.

They learnt how the sheep were shorn.

They were able to look inside the chef quarters on the farm.

And the quarters of the sheep shearers.

They didn’t think they were that flash without a tv!

Heading back to the car, we watched an emu hunt for some food.

When heading into the 4×4 section of the park, there is an area where you are to let down your tyres and you can inflate them again on the way out.

Not far along the main track, we came across this little blue-tongued skink.

We drove a far way in and found the sand to be extremely soft. We watch two 4×4’s pulling boats and trailers sliding all over the road, struggling to keep their trailers straight. The boat almost knife-jacked at one point. After seeing this, we decided it was time to head out as we didn’t want to be heading the opposite direction to these vehicles and having a trailer land in front of us.

We headed back to the homestead for a dip in the hot artesian tub. And it was hot!! 40˚C apparently, though it felt a lot hotter than that. We had a very quick dip, though it was nice you just couldn’t stay in there very long with that kind of heat. It was great though!