WILD WEST: Seaside delights
Don’t be put off by the name, Shark Bay is a jewel along the West Australian coastlineIt was only a few months ago I raved about the $10 million Rivershore Resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. But I reckon I’ve discovered an even better park for RV travellers: the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort on West Australia’s Peron Peninsula, a 430km drive north from our last stop at Geraldton as we head into Day 5 of our Coral Coast adventure.
Like Rivershore, the Monkey Mia park caters well for the top end of town, including ritzy seaside villas, a fancy gift shop and reception, resort pool and a classy but laidback restaurant. But like the Sunshine Coast park, the Dolphin Resort also looks after its less profitable RV guests like royalty.
As we’re becoming accustomed to at WA parks, the powered sites are super-sized, eliminating all stress when backing in the van. The two amenities blocks are as good they get for a van park: squeaky clean and modern, including spacious showers with the latest rain showerheads.
The on-sites laundries and camp kitchens are also state-of-the-art, including even a TV lounge area so you’re entertained while you cook dinner. All sites are a short walk to the white sand beach, where the dolphins come in every morning for a feed, while the tiny white shells covering all the powered sites makes you feel like you’re camping on the beach itself.
On the way in to Monkey Mia, and prior to a brief stop-over at the friendly coastal town of Denhamto to top up supplies, we stop off at a couple of unique natural wonders: the Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve to witness submerged ‘living fossils’, known as stromatolites that date back as far as 3.5 billion years. Apart from its ecological and historical significance, the coastal scenery from the viewing boardwalk is breathtaking.
The next natural wonder worth stopping at is Shell Beach (not to be confused with another Shell Beach north of Carnarvon, which we’ll talk about in another blog). I’ve been to hundreds of beaches in my life, but none as spectacular as this, comprised entirely of tiny washed up Shark Bay cockles.
As the Coral Coast tourism website explains, this “beautiful snow-white beach is made up of millions of tiny shells up to 10 metres deep and stretching for over 70 kilometres”.
It’s an extra-special detour, as my 13-year old daughter Celine is an avid shell collector, and we have to drag her off the beach to get to Monkey Mia before sunset.
Although pricey, we splash out for a family dinner at the park's Boughshed Restaurant, which offers an excellent choice of a la carte meals to go with the superb backdrop as the pink sun sets across Shark Bay.
It’s just one of many highlights at Monkey Mia, including the numerous encounters with pelicans and dolphins (at the scheduled morning feeds as well as impromptu encounters along the shoreline), and more shell collecting along the foreshore.
The only letdown is a noisy tenter in the site behind us, running a wheezy CPAP machine along with the hum of the resort’s generator all night, to disturb an otherwise sound sleep in our comfy, canvas-covered queen beds in the New Age Wayfinder.
However, all is forgotten when we witness yet another one of those legendary West Australian sunsets where the sky glows like it’s on fire.
It’s not the cheapest family powered site option in the region at $77 per night, but Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort is worth every cent…
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