Denham and Monkey Mia

I was really excited to be in Denham.  We planned to go to Monkey Mia in the morning for the dolphins, something I've wanted to do since they first started coming into the bay nearly 50 years ago! Yeah! This is better than icecream.
Wild dolphins here I come!

The water is crystal clear enabling us to see the dolphins as they come into the shallow waters.

The first viewing of the dolphins began at 8:30am, the water was freezing but Geoff and I bravely stood amongst the huge crowd who had also come to experience this special dolphin interaction. One of the dolphins finally came down towards my end of the line and what happened?  My camera jammed! Ahg! Panic! Finally got it working again but it was too late for that round.

The photos I have are as the group was checking us out fromt the deeper water just off the jetty.

They only hold the interactions with the dolphins three times through the course of the morning - this minimises the amount of food the dolphins are getting and therefore they have to go out to the deeper waters to feed.  This then enables their babies to suckle as they cannot do so in the shallows off Monkey Mia.  The mortality rate of young dolphins was quite high until studies revealed the problem.

You can see how close they come and they certainly know the buckets which contain the fish.  You can see how shallow and clear the water is that they swim into see everyone.   Amazing stuff!

I went and had another try at the third and final feeding of the morning. I had the perfect central position, I got talking to the guides so I was setting myself up to get one of only eight fish they hand out. Only a few of the dolphins came in this time but I didn't care it came quite close to where I was standing. Nicky, so named for the damage to her fin and back brought her young baby to show off. He soon got bored though and took off a little way when Mum wouldn't feed him. Mum stuck around to check us all out though. 

How gorgeous are they?

Nicky and bub!

You can see my shadow just in the corner of the photo, that's how close I was to her.

We'd organise to go out on a bay cruise on a yacht to check out dugongs, and unfortunately it was time to board just as the guides decided to feed the dolphins again. Boo Hoo! I had to give up my spot to someone else. Bugger!