Hamelin Station Stay

It took us quite sometime to say our goodbyes at Carnarvon... Richard had one of our neighbours lift the bonnet of his Toyota two minutes before we were due to leave. John (being a male) was obviously very willing to have a long discussion about the engine and the other John was joining in too. Once again we said farewell to John and Wendy and John and Jenny..... we hope to meet up once again on the road! Eventually, we left on chuck out time 10 a.m. and had to travel over 200 kms again!!

The highway was brilliant, very little traffic and very, very straight. The landscape was changing to a more colourful one due to the considerable amount of wild flowers adorning the side of the highway. We are heading into wild flower country.

The turn off to our destination was so visible, advertising the "Shark Bay" region.
Shark Bay was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1991 for its natural heritage values. To be inscribed, properties must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of ten selection criteria set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). You can find the full list of selection criteria here. Shark Bay satisfied all four of the natural criteria for World Heritage listing.
Many of Australia's iconic destinations are World Heritage-listed sites such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics of Queensland, which includes the Daintree Rainforest; the Greater Blue Mountains in New South Wales; the Northern Territory's Kakadu and Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Parks; and Western Australia's Purnululu National Park in the Kimberley.
The Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia has recently been inscribed on the World Heritage List for its natural beauty and biological diversity. The Ningaloo-Shark Bay National Landscape now boasts two World Heritage areas at its northern and southern ends.
We are so lucky to have been able to visit and see these amazing areas.




What an amazing place the Hamelin Station stay is, the manager Jason showed us the very big camper's kitchen and dining area that we can use, it looked like people were using this instead of cooking in their caravans. This area is where we are able to get Telstra and internet connection. Jason gave us information on the Stromatolites that are organisms which are the very beginnings of life on earth...these are a must see!!  We were shown our spot and Richard reversed the van in but we weren't level side to side, Helen jumped in the ute while Richard used his trusty spade to take away some earth from one side of the van and hey, ho we are level.....

Our pitch



The amenities block

The sign from the Station

 We spend the afternoon having a little look around the camp ground, it was immaculate! it is very well done and laid out!!
The early evening was spent inside the dining area, sitting at a long table with some very nice people and a nice wood fire, obviously with glass of wine in hand.
























One of the Camp Kitchens we used

The following day we headed off to visit Denham which is a round trip of 240kms. The last time we were in Denham was in August 2007 where we filled up our motorhome with diesel, we liked the look of it and promised that one day we would be back!! We visited the Information Centre and saw that the little town had been spruced up a bit and that work was ongoing on a new jetty this we thought is so good for the local community. We had a nice coffee and snack in a café on the waterfront.

Another significant memorial to the HMAS Sydney.
This has the name of every sailor who lost his life,
which was all of them.

Some friends had told us about the Aquarium which was 10kms south of Denham, we passed it on the way in! we decided to go back and have a tour. We paid our money and went straight into the first tank area, the Stingray tank. A very knowledgeable young man guided our small group through some amazing areas of the Aquarium, maybe half way round we were then taken over by another knowledgeable young man (English this time) on the final part of the tour. This guide showed us the most venomous of the fish including Sea snakes, Blow fish and Stone fish. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our tour here.
Helen finished off with a very nice glass of white wine sitting on the deck overlooking the beautiful Indian Ocean.

Along the route we detoured off to a place called Eagle Bluff about 2km off the highway, there were a few vehicles in the car park and we ventured out walking on the superb boardwalk on top of the cliffs to a spectacular viewing area where we spotted sharks and stingrays basking and swimming, what a sight, no wonder they call this place shark bay! We stayed here for quite some time chatting and exchanging binoculars with others young and old.

 













 

Part of the view at Eagle Buff there are a number
of sharks and stingrays in the water,
trust me I tell no lie!!

Another view, inland this time
from the amazing walkway at Eagle Bluff

Shell beach, amazing place, was another viewing stop we did on the way back to the Station but managed to get back for Happy hour.

Next morning we were very lazy, just chilling out chatting with fellow campers particularly with a very nice man who was writing for his Bird Watching club, he showed us some beautiful photographs he had taken and told us the names of some of the birds that were here at the Station.  Whilst we were looking at emails etc, a Ute and caravan rolled in, it was friends we had met way back at Lee and Jenny's bushcamp, we had last seen Greg and Pam at Barn Hill a little catch up was had and they went off and set up on their spot. This afternoon we drove out to the famous Stromatolites and Wow! what a very thought provoking place this is, these micro organisms are the basic building blocks of the first life on earth.
Once again we walked on a well built pathway above this awesome sight. 
Hamelin Pool is one of only three places on Earth where you can see living marine stromatolites. (The other two places are in the Bahamas.) Stromatolites are found in Hamelin Pool because its water is twice as salty as normal seawater. Few predators and competitors can survive these conditions, allowing the microbes to flourish and form stromatolites much as they did billions of years ago.

Plaque at the start of the walkway

 

The walkway



Stromatolites




Some of the wild flowers on our walk to the cafe

Afterwards we had a walk to the Caravan Park called Hamelin Pool CP.  Here we found a very quaint little café, they were serving a coach load of Japanese tourists their lunch. A chalkboard advertised Devon teas with scones. The coach driver had a chat with us, he was from Perth and was on the third day of his tour, he informed us that this group of tourists visit this area of WA at this time of year especially for the wild flowers, which I must agree are the most amazing sights anyone could wish to see.

After looking around the old-fashioned shop which was in the same building, we decided to partake of the tea. We chatted to the ladies who were running the place, the owner was from England and she told us that the recent Cyclone had hit her business very badly, we could see that as she had only 3 caravans on site. She was a very hard working woman and it was sad to hear her stories.  Unfortunately, the tea wasn't up to scratch, Liptons or something like that, not as good as Yorkshire tea bags, scone was OK though. Back at camp and Helen prepared our evening meal and we decided to use the kitchen's oven whilst having a drink with friends. Another interesting and very pleasant evening spent in the dining area.
Our next stop will be Kalbarri where we hope to see some friends.