Shark Bay, Thursday 12.11, 3030 km

Denham, 25 33 S, 113 33 E

The westernmost "town" on mainland Australia, population 1120, incredibly beautiful, with blindingly white shell sand beaches fringing the pale turquoise lagoonal waters of Shark Bay - which more than deserves its World Heritage Site status - probably the most impressive area on the whole trip - not because of the landscape of unrelenting scrub-covered rolling dunes and raised beaches on the peninsulas sticking out into the sea, but its bays, lagoons and marine life are out of this world.

We've seen the famous stromatolites of Hamelin Pond - rocky mounds formed by blue-green algae, one of the few and certainly the most impressive examples of now-living representatives of the first life-forms I saw in 3,500 million year old rocks further north; awe-inspiring in their simplicity and all they represent, bubbling out the oxygen just as their ancient ancestors did, when they were building up oxygen content in the primitive atmosphere long ago. Fascinating and inspiring to walk about the site with Bob Morris, present proprietor of Hamelin and totally interested in all aspects of life and evolution, quite a few laughs with him about my creation/evolution discussions earlier in the trip. Then on to view sharks, turtles, sea snakes and incredible numbers and kinds of fish at Ocean Park, an aquaculture centre just outside of Denham.

Denham itself, certainly the loveliest little town we've seen on the trip, sports an impressive World Heritage Information Centre and also the best caravan site we've stopped at. Then this morning crossing the peninsula to see the local dolphins being fed at Monkey Mia - another unforgettable experience.

Denham lies on the Peron Peninsula, which at its narrowest in the south is only 3.5 km wide. Like the rest of Australia, the original wildlife has been decimated by British colonists' introductions of foreign species like rabbits, goats, sheep, dogs and cats. CALM, the Dept of Conservation and Land Management (great acronym!) has started “Project Eden”, running an impressive electric fence (which even includes recordings of madly barking dogs when you approach it!) across the isthmus and then proceeding to kill of all foreign species north of the fence and re-introducing the original animals and plants – an enormous project, but it seems to be succeeding – Good on’ya!! As the ozzies would say....

We finished our stay in Denham at the “Old Pearler” Restaurant, a quaint little place built of cemented shell sand (looks like breeze/Leca blocks really!), Ros happy and enjoying her longed-for rock lobster (a giant crayfish) and David his fresh oysters and grilled catch of the day, followed by marsala and mango cheesecake, yummy! The best (and most expensive) of many good meals to date, but very cheap at the price compared to Norway.