Yes, yet another early start as we headed off to Monkey Mia; everywhere seems a long way from anywhere else in this country. It's here where we got to meet a family of dolphins that have been visiting this site for many years now. They do not allow any touching or any form of physical contact but do allow a select number of people to feed them during two or three live 'performances' each day. The dolphins are very tame but have sharp teeth and could bite if they wanted to. It turns out dolphins are not the gentle sea creatures we all imagine!
We all lined up 6 inches into the water and these amazing creatures came up to the 'handlers' and we were introduced to them. One had been attacked about 6 days ago by a shark and was very badly damaged. This huge wound was very evident but apparently is healing very well. It missed her blow hole and eye but left a gaping wound in the top of her back. The other dolphins, showing great care and love, have shunned her so the staff at Monkey Mia have to make sure she gets larger fish as she is not able to fish with the others in the pod. Everyone was told to stay out of the immediate water but there is always wherever we go a number of asians who take this as more of a suggestion than a rule and flout it wherever possible. The same happened here too.
We all lined up 6 inches into the water and these amazing creatures came up to the 'handlers' and we were introduced to them. One had been attacked about 6 days ago by a shark and was very badly damaged. This huge wound was very evident but apparently is healing very well. It missed her blow hole and eye but left a gaping wound in the top of her back. The other dolphins, showing great care and love, have shunned her so the staff at Monkey Mia have to make sure she gets larger fish as she is not able to fish with the others in the pod. Everyone was told to stay out of the immediate water but there is always wherever we go a number of asians who take this as more of a suggestion than a rule and flout it wherever possible. The same happened here too.
Jared then allowed us two hours here to give us time to swim and relax and have a coffee etc before we all piled back into the bus for the long drive to the cattle station at Warroora. Everyone was sleeping after our lunch stop and Jared was left driving this bus full of somnolent people. When I say everyone, this did not include me as I don't sleep on buses but everyone else was. In order to keep alert he asked us all to play a game along the same lines of 'Would I lie to you' - not entirely successful as only two of us had ever seen an episode. We then had to draw a map of Australia on the bus windows to be judged by him. The prize was an ice cream to those he thought had done the best map and included the most detail. Jill rightly won as most were as bad as mine - to date she is still waiting for this ice cream.
Now comes what can only be described as the best bit of the entire trip - well apart from the snorkling but more of that later. We had driven for ages along this bit of red dust road and arrived at the cattle station at Warroora which Jared described as basic - he was not wrong. However, he failed to mention what an awesome place this was. We were deep in the bush but a short Ute ride from the beach where we watched the sun go down. Before we did this, we dragged our beds outside ready for later then having made sure the hot tub was at the right temperature, headed down to the beach. Jared stayed behind to prepare the BBQ (and have a dip in the hot tub too) while we headed for the beach. The station is run by two guys - Rick and Marty (all I could think of was Rick and Morty!) - who allow the team at Red Earth to have the run of the place.
Then after dinner it was time for the hot tub. Not everyone wanted to join but Ana and I probably spent the best part of an hour in the warm water, drinking a beer and enjoying the peace and utter quiet. We were joined by a number of grey Kangaroos (not in the water obviously) but fortunately no nasty bugs or beasties. Then it was time for bed, lying in a cocoon of bedding looking up at the stars. Once the moon set, they got even brighter and quite magnificent. I felt so small but also so blessed to be able to experience this wonder. We all woke at sunrise where for a bit of light relief we sang the sunrise song from the Lion King.