We were wary that Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort in Shark Bay would be overcrowded, overpriced and an exploitation of dolphins. But we still managed to enjoy 10 days of sunning, swimming and fishing.
We squeezed the van into Unpowered Sites Slum Land which are the cheap seats way, way at the back of the the resort, but could still sip our sunset beers on the beautiful beach at the front.
We were catching a smorgasbord of fish, so were eating “Fresh Catch of the Day” every evening. There was squid galore (thanks to Cousin Den & Tina for giving us a squid jig and jigging tips) which made delicious calamari and squid curry. Plus could be used for bait.
The one stretch of beach also yielded whiting, tailor, yellow fin bream, long tom, flathead, blue-spotted emperor, spotted tusk-fish, oysters, cod and bacon. (OK, we didn't catch the last two items ourselves – they were gifted to us from kind campers with an excess.)
Sadly for Cameron, the huge one that got away also managed to break the rod, causing us to again doubt the so-called 'legend of reliability'.
Our waterproof camera has sprung a leak – so Cameron can't take photos whilst snorkelling anymore. Instead, he's invented a new and complicated fishing technique called snork-fishing, involving a snorkel and a piece of bait on the end of a line. I thought it made him look like shark bait – but I'll let Cameron explain the process to you sometime.
And the dolphins seemed quite happy to humour the tourists in exchange for a few free fish each morning. But we were most pleased to see the dolphins and a huge array of other wildlife - turtles, dugongs, rays, seasnakes, sharks - hanging out in the bay, hunting for a feed and avoiding the crowds. Just doing the sort of things we like to do.
