Another lazy day of sleeping in and no rushing about. We only have one week this time so want to make sure Hobbit goes back home with a good blend of rest and adventure up his sleeve.
Today (Wednesday) was a bit of a messy day as we had no grand plans but everything revolved around the time the gast tank truck was going to arrive in town. The fuel station was out of 98% and so were we. So if it came early we could do some driving about, but if it was coming later we would have to make do with a day gadding about town. We have never had this problem before, but the excessive numbers of visitors to the regions with their boats and toys have exhausted the fuel before the town could realise what was going on. All the people who normallly go overseas or overeast are now doing WA tours. Great for our economy but not great for us regulars who come up here for peace and quiet to be sharing the area with the 'Bali Bogan' crowds (not really our people, we prefer the lovely grey nomads who are a great chin-wag when you get to share their company).
Anyways, we checked in at 10 and the servo was still empty so we did a walk up and down the main strip. This time looking in at the Tourist centre to see if they had some yummy Sandalwood Dukkah to replenish our recently exhausted supplies back home. Nope, excessive tourism had also run that dry. Geez, first the fuel, now the Dukkah! Go home Bali Bogans! hahahaha. I settled for a few bags of Sandalwood Nuts (YUM) and a tube of Emu Oil lip balm.
Back at the Surf'n'Dolphin I found the worlds comfiest RipCurl tracky dacks so bought those, as well as some resort wear loose white cotton pants, great for hot sunny bushwalking as they keep the sun and bugs off your legs but aren't hot to wear. Hobbit bought a pair of aqua boots for slopping around beach walking, and mainly to keep up with me because I have a pair! lols. We then noticed that the gast tanker was at the servo so headed back down that way to eagerly fill up the car with much awaited for fuel.
I ambled about in the IGA waiting for the fuel tanker to do its thing and lo and behold, in walks the very man I was hoping to run into, Capes! Capes is the coolest guy you will ever meet in your life. He is the owner and tour guide for Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Adventures, the best tour available not just in Denham, but anywhere in WA! We have had the pleasure of three of these tours on previous trips to Denham, and had we been more cashed up this time around we would definitely have signed up for more. We have done the Kayak/Wildlife adventure, the Didgeridoo Night Dreaming Tour, and our absolute favourite, the Francois Peron 4WD Adventure. If you are ever going to head over to Dehnam I can't recommend any of these tours highly enough, and if you don't book one then you are going to miss out on learning about this countryside in a way that no book, computer, tourist centre, or self guided drive about will ever give you. If Capes doesn't know it, then it is not worth knowing.
His family history in this area goes back to the founding people way before colonisation and his knowlege of the flora, fauna, oceans, sands, skys, and all the magic they behold is more extensive than you could imagine. I ran over to him with excited delight and gave him the biggest hug, Capes' hugs are always real, even Hobbit says so. Such a genuine person. We had a chat, I found out that unfortunately he will be out of town while we are here because he is on a camping tour for the rest of the week, what a shame for us, we would have loved to spend some time with him and his lovely wife, Mira. Oh well, next time we are here we plan on booking a camping tour to learn more about this place and it's beautiful history.
Back outside, I told Hobbit that Capes was about so he jumped out the car and got his hug as well. Another quick chat and Capes was back in his 4WD tour van and off to join his camp team. At long last the petrol was available so we filled the car to the top to cover us for the rest of our stay and all the driving about we will be doing. From here, it was already past midday so we decided to just head out to Hamelin Bay.
Hamelin Bay is all the way out near the turn off to Denham, about 120km from Denham itself and about 30km from Overlander Roadhouse. It is a lovely drive and there are loads of little stop-offs along the way that you can check out. We hadn't visited Nanga Bay Resort yet this trip so made the turn into the driveway. Of all the lovely beaches in Shark Bay and Denham, Nanga is the best swimming beach. Most places in the area are quite shallow for miles and are flat and quite weedy, Nanga has a nice deep drop off straight off the shore and has a little bit of swell, just enough so that you can bob up and down in the waves but not worry about being swept out to sea in a torrid current. It is also a lovely clear clean water with little seaweed and white sandy bottom so you can keep the corner of your eye peeled for any large lurking shadows aproaching. As this is a private property you need to sign in at the office before using the beach area, and then sign back out when you leave. I think this is a really good safety precaution so that they can keep tabs on who is out there. You leave your number plate and mobile number so they can check cars in the area and also so they can call to make sure you are ok. The wind was mild but there is still a winter chill to the air, it being only 21degrees. We are way too used to coming here in Summer when the temps get to more between 35 to 45. Today was not the best day for swimming so we just had a bit of a gander.
Nanga Camp is a lovely place to visit for a swim as it has the best beach in the area.
Back in the car and on the road to Hamelin Pool, we happened across a little echidna trying to weave traffic to cross the road. A few cars had dodged him and the poor little feller was all confused. So we stopped to help him out but he turned back around and scuffled into the bushes from whence he came. We did manage to get a few photos of him, with his little beak buried in an ants nest. I have never seen one of these up close like that, only on tv and behind the safety rails of a zoo, so this experience was really neat!
This little feller was trying to cross the road so we made sure his journey was safe.
The roads were lined with an amazing display of yellow wildflowers, it looked like a yellow sea, and this cascaded down along the roadside all the way to Hamelin. We decided to stop the car and get some photos and they turned out beautifully. It is nice to see this countryside at different times of year, it is like a whole other place. Sometimes it is mounds of dusty red soil, other times it is a carpet of multicolour spring wildflowers, and at winter (where we are now) it is lined with lush green foliage and vibrant yellow blooms. It never looks the same, norther road trips never ever bore me.
Australian wildflowers are a spectacular display of colour.
The Hamelin Car Park was a good spot to sit and have some lunch we had packed ourselves into the trusty little travel esky. You soon learn when travelling up north that it isn't easy to eat food outside at certain times of the year as the flies will cover your food in a black cloud before you can get it near your mouth. Luckily they weren't too crazy this time of the year but they were still around, so it is easier to sit in the car. With a full belly and renewed energy we headed out to the boardwalk of the stromatolites.
Stromatolites are a humbling lesson in life. The oldest living organisms on the planet, they are extremely rare and are only found on a few locations on the planet, two of which are right here in WA. One in Shark Bay and the other near Australind/Bunbury. Mostly found in fossil records, they are studied as the earliest record of ancient life on Earth. When you actually get to see them, you are a little bummed out, they look just like rocks, but thankfully the shire of Shark Bay have beautifully lay out a well maintained boardwalk which has a series of educational reader boards which tell you all about these amazing microbes. When it sinks in just what they are you catch yourself out staring at them for ages wondering what they have seen and all the planetary changes they could tell you about in their time if they could talk. Not just that, but their formation makes a wonderful little maze of holes, tunnels, and obstacle courses in the water which a flurry of little fish live in. From atop the boardwalk you can watch these gorgeous little fish scurrying along their business, a spectacle I find wonderfully entertaining. Schools of teeny tiny fish, little fish that look coupled up, bigger single fish, and all shapes, colours, and varieties. You wonder what they must think about the big human heads peering over the wooden pier railing at them, oogling their every move.
The Hamelin Bay Stomatalites are beautifully presented with educational reader boards.
From Hamelin Bay We backtracked towards Denham again, stopping this time at the Eagle Bluff Boardwalk, another beautifully created tourist spot by the shire. The boardwalk was constructed to preserve the natural dues and flora and runs along the edge of a massive cliff that overlooks the crystal clear waters of Eagle Bluff, a waters edge that is enriched with marine life and bird life and despite it being so far away from where you stand. You can see it all clearly because the waters are so clear and the sands are so white. Again, this is a place we have visited a few times and sometimes you have the luck of seeing something cool, other times not. On this particular visit we did see a few Nervous Sharks gliding along slowly, and a small turtle. The sign says that you might be lucky enough to see sting rays, dugongs, and even whales on occasion, so it is always worth stopping by and take your chance.
The Boardwalk is frequented by tourist busses so you can be there alone one minute and next minute you are joined by a crowd of people snapping photographs, chatting, kids screaming, and you are standing there wondering what happened to the serenity. I often get annoyed to see people climbing off the boardwalk and wandering around, such a shame that they don't care about preserving the area or their own safety. But they generally go really quickly and if you hang around they come and go so you get to have some time alone to soak up the scenery in peace.
Eagle Bluff is a beautiful sight, well worth the visit, even on an overcast day.
We wanted to get to the Shark Bay Hotel in time for the local band and open mike night so headed back to our comfy little unit back at Bay Lodge to spruce up and do something social for the night.
We scrubbed up all pretty for our pub visit and had a couple of drinkies in the room before heading off. Bay Lodge is on the very far left side of town and Shark Bay Hotel is right across the other end, not quite as far as the Denham Seaside Caravan Park (a lovely place we have tented in before), but about 4/5's of the way. Despite these being opposite ends of town, it is still only about a 5 minute walk from one to the other, and a lovely walk along the waters edge at that. The Denham coastline is more of a gulf than an ocean so the water is very still, no waves and not much tidal movement. But the water is still crystal clear and beautiful. The two town jettys are a popular spot for late night squidding and the abundance of squid in the area mean you can catch them without having to worry about overfishing or upsetting the balance in the ecosystem. There is always someone standing on the jetty having a try and when you walk along it you see the remnants of successful catches with the black splashes of ink splattered across the jetty floor.
We got to the pub at around 7.30 and the band didn't start till 8.30. So we got a couple of drinks and sat outside while the weather was still nice and enjoyed the still night air. I couldn't believe how still the night was, normally this area is always windy making even the hottest of days and nights feel cooler than they actually are, but this night there wasn't even a slight bit of movement in the leaves of the trees. So for a really cool night it didn't feel 'freezing'. As the band started we went inside and ordered another round of drinks and a bowl of chips to share. Man, these were the tastiest chips ever! We had befriended another couple at the bar (who were pretty intoxicated already lols! but happy so what they hey) and shared our chips with them and chatted (as much as we could when they struggled to string a sentence together). The band started and they were actually really good. They played some classic covers as well as some originals which were impressive. The lead singer was a shorty but boy he had a set of lungs on him, it must be a short person thing (Hobbit having the same outstanding ratio of power in his lungs compared to height). The guitarist was a female and she sang some songs as well. She was a gorgeous gypsy looking woman and together they all made a great combo.
The Shark Bay Tavern is an iconic place
It is the most Westerly based tavern in Australia.
All week since we saw the open mike night I had been urging Hobbit to get up and sing. Normally when we go out you can't shut him up, and when we go to concerts I have to tell him to pipe down because he is so loud I can't hear the artist we paid all the money to hear. But for some reason he didn't want to do the open mike night. All through the band I kept saying to him "get up, you'll blow them away!" but he wouldn't. So at the end I just got up and put the song into the juke-box. White Wedding - a song I knew he knew with his eyes closed. Unfortunately I programmed it wrong so prior to the karaoke version playing the actual song played. I think this dulled the crowd because as it came on the 2nd time in a row the dance floor cleared and things went silent. Hobbit got up with much coaxing and grabbed the microphone. He started singing but to my dismay you could hardly hear him. I was sitting there thinking "Belt this shit out, Hobbit, I've seen you do it a million times before" but he just stood there kinda whispering. The patrons couldn't really hear anything so turned back to their games of pool and conversations. About 2/3 of the way through he found his confidence and the volume amped up which made me laugh because everyone turned around shocked as hell as where this booming voice came from, surely not that quiet little guy with the mike! hahahaha. That's the Hobbit I know and love. He finished his song with much more confidence and volume than he began, it felt like the song went for like 20 minutes because I was SO nervous for him. In the end he got a good round of applause and I was proud as punch.
We went home shortly afterwards as the crowd started to thin out and the few left were hammered anyways. It was a fun night to finish off a great day. Another wonderful Denham adventure.
Sadly, this was our last sleep in our villa, due to the busy period (due to excessive local travelers who can't go over east or over seas due to Covid19 boarder lockdowns) we couldn't book any extra days past Thursday.
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