My own private beach

Due to over-tiredness, I did not post a blog page last night, but I will incorporate yesterday's events on this page. We are at Sharks Bay, most precisely in Denham, Australia easternmost town (pop. 754). During the 400 or so kilometers from Geraldton we likely did not encounter more than a dozen cars, and not a single place you can call a town, but luckily there was a gas station and rest-stop.

When counseling my clients about their retirement, I generally illustrate three segments, the go-go years, the slow-go years and the no-go years. During this trip I am learning first-hand of yet another unit, which I will call simply the "go" years. Yes, I have come to the realization that go-go no longer applies to me. Whilst I don't envision the slow-go years to be around the corner, I just don't have the energy I used to have, and that is a fact. After a while of going like a mad man, fatigue does set in, causing me to re-evaluate plans that, sitting at a desk looking at maps and leafing through books one does not take into proper account.

And so, we decided to take a day of rest in this little bit of heaven sitting on Tropic of Capricorn. Doing so however, required some severe re-planning of our route. Originally we had envisioned driving up the coast to the northern town of Port Hedland, where we would then switch route and return to Perth via the interior of the state. but this would require long drives and higher temperatures. The national parks are indeed jewels, but summer is low season in this part of Australia, and now we know why. So we paused, and decided that this is as far north as we will go.

Tomorrow we will begin turning back, although we will be taking a more internal route, and head to the shore of the Southern Ocean, which is equally rich in areas of interest.

Yesterday began with a new stop at Kalbarri National Park, but lo and behold, this portion of the Murchison River actually had water, which we are told comes from monsoon rains up in the Northern Territory. More about rain later.

Sharks Bay however is a completely different environment. It is a Unesco World Heritage Area. The terrain and the air are just as dry, but temperatures nearly plummeted from the 100s to the 80s, and being on the coast, there is a strong breeze that after sunset makes you feel downright cold.

The area is is dotted with points of interest of the primordial kind. The Stromatolites that we had seen at Lake Thetis pale in comparison to the size and amounts on display at the Hamelin Pool.

Shell Beach will blow your mind, and no matter how you may try to capture it in a photograph, you will never be able to render it justice. The sand is made of shells, some whole and some disintegrated, and it stretches for miles. The shells are piled up on top of each other to a depth of 30 feet!! And the whiteness of the shore with the turquoise color of the ocean make for an unforgettable sight. I included this lone couple in the image to render a better perspective of the dimensions of the place.

And now about the town of Denham. Here we had reserved not a campground spot but an actual house on the beach. The place was lovely, but truth be told, we have taken to campground life, and we kind of missed it.

Emus are kings around here. They stroll through the streets of the town unfazed by anything around them. They walk very slowly. We encountered several families in town and in the surrounding area.

After checking-in we booked a sunset cruise at Monkey Mia, a location of marine interest located about 20 miles away. While waiting for our catamaran (6 people plus a crew of two), we spotted a most unusual sight. A dolphin and a pelican, seemingly best friends, were gingerly cruising the shoreline together, in unison, We continued watching them until they disappeared in the distance.

Marine turtles also swam nearby.

We very much enjoyed the 2-hour cruise, and the sunset was indeed marvelous, but I will not post pictures of it, preferring to share an image of Monkey Mia upon our return.

Today we did another sailing on the same catamaran and spotted several Gudongs; gentle creatures that weigh up to 1,500 lbs. It is nearly impossible to ever take a good picture of them since their weight prevents them from staying afloat long enough to do so.

We find Australians to be either super-friendly or very "indifferent", for lack of a better word. I will share the conversation I had with a waitress in town at the Sharks Bay Cafe, where we stopped for lunch. We ordered a cheeseburger and a seafood plate, paid nearly $40 Australian, and proceeded to sit at our table. Minutes before the order was ready, the young lady informs us that they are about to close and "would it be OK if she packages our food to go". I said OK, but then realized that we had been sailing in the wind all day and the breeze outside was quite strong. Where the heck should we go to eat in peace? When the food arrived I told her that "It would have been nice if she had let us know they were going to close, so that we could simply have gone next door", to which she replied "what's the difference eating from a plate or from a box?" I couldn't help but retort that it is an inconvenience and we should have been told about it. She then said "Sir, you are being abusive". "Me, abusive? What kind of business are you running? If the customer is inconvenienced, the customer is always right", to which she simply came back with "No, they are not". I thought you might be amused by this bit of Aussie attitude.

Just outside of Denham is an inlet from the ocean, called the Little Lagoon. Our campground is but a mile from it. Since it is very hard to render the concept of each spot on images taken from land, I took the liberty to photograph a large aerial photo of the place that was hanging on a wall in Monkey Mia. Yep, that's where we are, Nowhere's land.

Last night we had a close encounter on the road with a group of kangaroos, one on which I missed by inches. It seemed they waited just for us to drive by, so they could leap in front of us. But no harm was done.

And now another little discussion that took place with the ladies at the front desk of the campground (by the way, in case you are confused, we left the house we had rented the first night here, and booked us a nice spot in a campground on the beach). So, in the AM, a gentle mist was in the air, which caused about 5 minutes worth of minuscule droplets to fall. While in the process of checking in, we were discussing various aspects of the local weather, and one of the two ladies exclaimed We actually had rain today! "I know, I was here, but you cannot call that rain. It evaporated before hitting the ground". Oh yes, she said, it was rain all right. That's how it falls here. "How often does that happen?", I asked. She turned to her co-worker and asked When was the last time we saw rain?" June. was it not?, she replied. No more needs to be said.

The title of this post is "My own private beach". This because I finally got to spend time going swimming, and yes, I had a lovely immense beach all to myself, while Eric was napping in the caravan. Here's a sunset from this lovely spot. G'night.

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