Monkey Mia

Dugong!

We had to be at Monkey Mia at 10.15am as we had booked a wildlife-spotting cruise on the Aristocat, a large catamaran. It was only 26km across to Monkey Mia and fortunately we were able to check into the resort before heading off on the boat. As we were heading out we saw a few of the dolphins on the beach for what must have been the last feeding session. The cruise included a quick tour of the floating Blue Lagoon Pearl farm. Jaimie, who had been on the last series of 'Farmer wants a Wife' gave us a run down on how their pearls are cultured. Back on board the catamaran we headed out into Shark Bay to track down the shy and docile dugongs. Being mammals, they cannot hold their breath under water for very long (5-8mins) so they can be spotted coming to the surface for air. It wasn't long before we came across a few but they did not stay up for long and we never got too close to them except for the last one we saw right in front of the boat on the way in. They are quite unusual creatures and can grow up to three metres length. It was quite windy on the boat and I think we all copped quite a bit of sun. We were happy to hang out at the van and the pool for the rest of the afternoon.