maqh just cruising along

Monkey Mia

Monkey Mia is famous for dolphins coming so close to the beach that you can actually feed them. These days everything is monitored but it's still quite extraordinary to see it happening. The resort is around 900km north from Perth and I had a chance to visit it earlier this month thanks to Queen's birthday long weekend. In case you were wondering, in WA the Queen was born on different day than in every other state and to make it even more interesting her birthday is always on Monday.

Coming back to dolphins, if you want to have a close look at them it's probably best to wake up around 7am but if you like to sleep in don't worry, after the first feeding they should come back once or twice more before lunch. If you get to the beach in the morning you'll probably see something like that:

You can hear a bit about these interesting animals from people that supervise the whole process and make sure they're not overfed for example. I'm guessing it wouldn't be too good for them if they get something to eat from let's say 200 people few times a day.

When it's feeding time everyone is asked to get out of water and few chosen ones [you have to be pretty special ;)] get to feed few dolphins a fish. Actually only female ones are being fed and not all of them, as I mentioned it's all monitored so the process won't affect animals' behavior in their natural environment.

As you can imagine after the feeding lucky females that got the fish are happy, blokes that missed out not so much so they just swim away to sort it between themselves somewhere deep in the ocean. But don't stress, they will be back. They always do.

Not sure what it is about the dolphins but they just seem very friendly so it's definitely a nice experience to see them so close:

What else it there to do in Monkey Mia? Not much really. Of course if you're a fan of just lying on the beach and enjoying the sun and the ocean then you're in the right spot, water is just beautiful and the weather is fantastic most of the year. But if you prefer to actually do something you may want to try a cruise to see some more animals out in the ocean. Your best bet would probably be the Shotover:

This catamaran will take you for 2 or 3 hours (depending on the time of the day you decide to go) cruise during which you can see some more dolphins, maybe a sea turtle and... dugongs. To be honest I had no idea an animal like that even exists before I went to Monkey Mia.

These interesting vegetarian mammals are often called "sea cows" cause they mostly eat see grass and that's where you can usually spot them, at the shallow waters full of sea grass.

They look kinda funny, like a seal (front) combined with a small whale (tail):

Of course while out there sailing you can spot other animals as well, unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of a turtle (we saw one) but here's another dolphin for you:

The cruise is definitely worth taking, the Shotover staff is very friendly and they make sure you're happy with the experience. If you're not, you can come back for however many cruises you want until you're satisfied. Plus they give you $100 on the spot if you get sea sick.

Once you're back on the shore you can enjoy the scenery:

check some more animals that hang around there:

and then come back for a sunset cruise to nicely wind up the day. On that cruise you can also see a pearl farm:

and obviously enjoy the sunset:

Interesting thing about Monkey Mia is that it's only one resort and that's where you have to stay overnight. There's one restaurant and one pub and everything seems to quiet down very quickly so most likely you're be up the next day quite early to check if friends you made the day before are there again. And they will be:

Overall, very nice place to visit but I wouldn't like to stay there for too long. Unless you're after doing nothing and just relaxing you can pretty much get all the interesting stuff done in one or two days and hit the road again.

Especially if you're coming back to Perth, there's almost 900km to drive which will take you a while. Fortunately, if you don't have to be back at work the next day there's plenty of amazing spots on the way. But more about it sometime soon.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering that's where Monkey Mia is: