Shark Bay and Monkey Mia
The bus leaves Coral Bay at about 8.00 p.m. The next stop was the Overlander Road House. You have to get a transfer from there to Denham which is the main town on Shark Bay.
Basil Faulty’s Nephew
I was the find out later that the transfer service to Shark Bay, and a similar arrangement from the main road into Kalbarri, is the subject of a completive Tender run by the WA Public Transport Authority. This is obviously part of their public service obligations.
To book a transfer, you have to ring a bloke called Mike on his mobile phone. I called the day before the bus was leaving Coral Bay. I was told:” I may be not be running, you have to give 24 hours’ notice”. I told him that I knew of two Irish girls that would also need a lift. He told me to ring back.
I found the Irish girls in a restaurant. They had called and they “didn’t understand what he had said”. I called Mike again and was told: “f##ck off, I am trying to sleep”.
As it turned out an employee of Integrity Buses was on the bus to The Overlander. She was made aware of our experiences with Mike. I wish him the best of luck with the next competitive tender.
Into Denham
As turned out, Mike’s driver was at the Overlander Roadhouse was there to pick up at around midnight. It is about an hour’s ride by a Landcruiser into Denham.
On the way he stopped on the pretext of showing the Irish girls the “amazing sky”, which is fully of vivid stars. This is due to the lack of pollution and the absence of any other light. The reality was he wanted to have a cigarette.
Monkey Mia
Next day we took another Landcruiser across to Monkey Mia. The Irish girls had been having difficulty coming to terms with the costs in WA. These added transfers only added to their misery.
We arrived in Monkey Mia in time to watch the feeding of the Dolphins. This is a major attraction. If you are into Dolphins I suggest taking a sea kayak out from the Main Beach at Byron Bay.
Glam Camping
There is not an enormous amount to do in Monkey Mia. I booked into a trip on catamaran. As I waited for the trip to start, I got into conversation with some fellow oldies. They turned out to be on a very upmarket adventure tour. There were a couple from Mansfield in NW Victoria, a woman from Melbourne and another old bloke with a young Chinese wife.
It turned out that the bloke with the young wife was a photographer and the he was taking photos and videos for promotional material for the tour company. The others were ‘models’ and were being paid to go on the trip.
It was an interesting chat.
Photographer was one those ‘rusted on’ Coalition supporters who could find fault in all the Labor Party Governments have done including; “selling of the Commonwealth Bank and QANTAS and the floating of the AUD”.
Shotover Catamaran
The catamaran – the’ Shotover’ – is a former racer. It is seriously fast. Check out the Garmin link.
The trip is out into Shark Bay with the expectation of seeing Dugong and Dolphins. We saw two of the former (check out the pic of brown blob) and none of the latter.
Back to the Overlander Road House
The Irish girls and I headed back to Denham to get the 4WD back to the Overlander for another late night trip south the Ajana. Where were met by another Transit service to take us into Kalbarri.
Garmin Link
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/614590884
Flickr Link
billrider2013 