DENHAM  (SHARK  BAY)

This lovely little seaside town is about as far west as you can get without a boat.  It's hard to keep saying how beautiful the coastline is, but every time you drive in from the inland highway, it's like another wonderful surprise greets you as you see the clear blue water.  On the way in to the town we stopped off at Hamelin Station, which was the site of an old Telegraph Station. 

It's also the site  of the amazing Stromatolites, and if you are like us and didn't know what they were - they are an ancient form of life that grows in the sea, very slowly.  Hamelin is one of the only sites in the world where you can see them.  Later on in Denham, we learnt more about them at the Discovery Centre, which houses wonderful displays of flora and fauna of the surrounding areas.

We enjoyed our day driving through Francois Peron National Park.  The roads are very sandy, so tyre pumps are provided at the start of the tracks where you can deflate your tyres before starting out, and reinflate them on your return.  Unfortunately for one couple we came across bogged in the sand, no amount of deflating would have helped them, as they were driving a Hyundai sedan on a clearly marked 4WD track!  Despite offers of help, they had decided to wait for the Ranger to come and pull them out.  We think they would have had to dig deep to pay for their retrieval costs.





We made it through the sandy tracks O.K.



 

Big Lagoon in Francois Peron N.P.


Another attraction in this area is Monkey Mia where they feed the dolphins.  We had visited it on a previous trip, so we gave it a miss this time.

The sunsets are beautiful all along the west coast, and Denham was no exception.

Some kind person had left this recliner at the beach so you could put your feet up and enjoy the view.