Monkey Mia Part One

The resort located at an area called Monkey Mia, about twenty minutes west of Denham has accommodation options for everyone. We set up camp on the back corner of a nice grassy area and were entertained by the curious emus that wandered throughout the day. They are looking for food and will find it! One even tried to go through the mesh on our tent because it could see our food totes inside. They were not shy in the least and a little bit of a pest, really, but other than inspecting our tent everyday they left us alone (we didn't leave any food out for them so they lost interest pretty quick!)

Monkey Mia has a long history of friendly dolphin interaction. For years, they have had human/dolphin interactions that have grown into a ritual of daily feeding of up to 5 dolphins. These 5 female dolphins are part of a program through the Department of Environment and Conservation and are identified by their unique markings (various scars & scratches on their otherwise smooth grey bodies). There is strict policy to how/when and how much the dolphins are fed in order to encourage them to feed and hunt naturally so that their calves will learn the appropriate survival skills.

Each morning at 7.45am (yup.. I got up that early on holidays folks! - kinda have to when the bloody crows start their alarms at 6.30 and the sun is shining onto the tent making it a little bit like a boiling tank!) an interpreter comes out with a remote microphone and the viewers gather high up on the beach. She gives some instructions about not touching the dolphins, how to behave and then everyone wanders down to the shoreline and steps in to the water so that it is just below their knees. Almost immediately "Nikki" arrives to gently swim up and down the line of spectators to inspect the crowd. Often she has her calf Fin with her, but sometimes Fin stays out with the rest of the pod in the deeper waters playing with the other young calves whilst being supervised by some of the other mothers. For about the next 20 minutes, the story of these dolphins and general information about dolphins lifestyles and habitat is shared with the crowd and then comes the buckets of fish. The other dolphins know it's food time and come in and obediently line up 1 per bucket and await for their snack. Volunteers are picked from the crowd to feed the dolphins and then the session is over.

I watched from the jetty as I wasn't interested in feeding them and felt I could get a better view. And sure enough, I could see the pod of young ones out chasing the bait fish, Nikki trawling up and down near the crowd and even a nice green turtle who was checking out the jetty and the bait fish swimming around.