Hamelin Pool, Monkey Mia and on to Kalbarri

Left Carnarvon and next stop was Hamelin Pool, a nice quiet little caravan park about an hour from Monkey Mia. Met up with the Gray family (Georgie, Brett and kids) and stayed for 3 nights. Had a few day trips to Monkey Mia, Eagle Bluff and Shell beach. Also saw the "stromalites" which apparently are very rare bacteria colonies in the bay at Hamelin Pool (closely related to the first forms of life and which look very much like rocks if you ask me!!) It meant we couldn't swim in the sea at the caravan park because we could destroy the little critters but we didn't mind too much because it was freezing. Yes, you heard right - FREEZING!! The wind was blowing a gale and we had to resort to long pants and jumpers and extra blankets at night. Boy, I hate this cold stuff!! Really trying to put the brakes on so we don't hit too much of this chilly weather.
Anyway, enough of that, here are the stromalites which I'm sure you will be impressed with...Chris and the kids were so impressed they didn't even go to see them, they said take a photo so we can look at that. Ha ha.
Mmm, stromalites...

SHELL BEACH

Laura, Will and Emma at Shell Beach. It is made entirely from tiny little white shells and up to 10 metres deep in places. The shells stick together after a time and compact into a solid mass which was once used for a building material. Now it is only mined from a quarry at Hamelin Pool and only to maintain the historic buildings already there.
This is where the shell blocks are mined from.

EAGLE BLUFF

My wordy lordy me it was windy from the top of Eagle Bluff. Blow a dog off it's chain!

MONKEY MIA

Laura and Will feeding the dolphins A star fish

We went for a catamaran ride on "Aristocat 2" and loved it. Went over to the pearl farm and got to see how pearls are made and also got to meet "farmer Jamie", from the TV show "farmer wants a wife". Then we went looking for dugongs which I thought would be easier than it actually was. Apparently they are very shy creatures so they came up for a split second to get some air, then disappeared, usually just as I tried to get a photo! Did get to see a couple of them but would save myself the trouble next time.

Chris and the kids relaxing on the net at the front of the "Aristocat 2".

Towards the end of our cruise they put out the boomnet and Laura and Emma jumped on for a quick ride. For everyone else it was way too cold! Stopped at Denham on the way home and had lunch and a play at the playground (the kids that is, not me).

HORSE RIDING

After being so brave getting on the boomnet the day before Laura decided she would like to go horse riding so here we are...

Laura at the back and Emma at the front on their horses Mighty and Ruby

Heading back after a fun 20 minute ride. Look out Jane and Fiona, she's hooked and we told her to see you guys when we get back for some lessons!

So that's the trip so far. Off to do a little day trip tomorrow so I'll be back with some more photos soon. Hope this weather warms up, it reminds me why I've enjoyed being away so much :-)

Cheers to you all xxx