Today we went to Monkey Mia, about 25 km from Denham, about 25 km away, because every day dolphins come to the beach to watch.
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Monkey Mia in der Shark Bay
As the Define are a big tourist attraction, the number of visitors was correspondingly high – not to forget: it is just school holidays in Western Australia,which is why an incredible number of families are on the way. For 10 AUD admission per person you can stay all day at the resort, which consists of a hotel, a restaurant and a small supermarket. Monkey Mia advertises that every day between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. dolphins can come to the beach and be fed (by individual selected visitors). When we arrived at around 7.45 am, dozens of people were already waiting in front of the information centre for it to start.
The Dolphins of Monkey Mia
A short time later, two employees spoke to the visitors, gave information about the dolphins and what will happen. We then all gathered down to the beach and lined up all of us. It had a bit of an amusement park. We found this super full. But we were told that on an Easter weekend up to 700 people wanted to see the dolphins!
The two employees then gave another 10 minutes of information, including the story of Monkey Mia’s and the dolphins. The wild dolphins are sometimes very trusting and swim up to the legs of the employees. But despite all this, the dolphins are not touched,which we find quite good. Eventually, several volunteers came with buckets. They then picked out 1 to 2 visitors, who could throw a fish in the dolphins’ mouth.
After that, the spectacle was over. The other two feeding times do not take place at any specific time. These are carried out spontaneously as soon as dolphins return to the beach (but maximum until 12 o’clock). With us it was the case that there were three feedings until 10 o’clock and after that none more. The last feeding was much less frequented (perhaps only 1/3 of the people), as most tourists take part in the first action in the early morning and then continue to travel.
Relaxing on the beach
After the feedings – when the Define are gone again – the beach is almost empty. After 12 o’clock the dolphins don’t get any more fish, because they want to avoid getting used to the “non-self-fish-hunting”. The beach section, where the dolphins come so close, is also somewhat delimited. You are also not allowed to go for a swim there or lie down and sunbathe. By the way, the resident resort advertises with a hit rate of 99.6 . In other words, within two years there were only two “dolphinless” days. In addition to the dolphins, there are also a lot of pelicans to see. In addition, a few emus come by again and again. We then sat down on the beach for a few more hours and enjoyed the sun.
Even though it’s all very commercial, we thought it was great to see and watch the dolphins so close to the beach.
All travelogues from Western Australia
We visited Australia for the first time during our world trip in 2015. Here we were mainly on the east coast (Sydney, Brisbane, Airlie Beach and Cairns), in the south (Adelaide, Great Ocean Road and Melbourne) and in the interior of the country (Ayers Rock). We liked Australia so much back then that we definitely wanted to see much more here. And what we completely missed was the west coast. Here we put together a great self-drive route for almost 2 weeks to get to know some of the highlights of the state of Western Australia.
» Perth – Tourist Attractions & Kangaroos on Heirisson Island (Australia)» Perth – The cute Quokkas on Rottnest Island (Australia)
» The sand dunes in Lancelin & the Pinnacles Desert (Australia)
» Hutt Lagoon & the Kalbarri National Park (Australia)
» Danham – World Heritage Drive & the Shark Bay (Australia)
» Monkey Mia – The wild Dolphins in the Shark Bay (Australia)
» Coral Bay – Diving & Snorkeling at the Ningaloo Reef (Australia)
» Exmouth – The Cape Range National Park (Australia)
» Exmouth – Swimming with whale sharks & mantas (Australia)
» Exmouth – Diving at the Muiron Islands on Ningaloo Reef (Australia)
» Perth – The Koalas in the Yanchep National Park (Australia)