It really was all going far too well! We stopped overnight in Carnarvon on the way to Monkey Mia and the next day we pulled over for one of Jess's slightly less frequent toilet stops and Phil smelt oil...
It was splattered all over the front of the caravan so after a few *(%$'s!!! Phil got underneath the Pajero and found the axle had pulled out of the diff!! He was able to click it back into place but was worried about how much diff oil had leaked so we drove very slowly to the next service station, about 30km away. Rohan followed behind us, using his CB to tell the trucks about the sick Pajero ahead!!
They were able to refill the diff oil and we limped along again but there was no further leaking so we decided to take the risk and drive in to Monkey Mia as we knew the kids would love it there. We were thinking it might have been due to a bad landing when we had been 4WD'ing at Coral Bay so were hoping all would be ok - unfortunately it happened again about 100km north of Perth and Phil had found out on the internet that it was due to a problem with 04 Pajero's having a circlip that was too small and tended to pull out when under tow - this detail for those of you who might be interested in this sort of thing...
We stayed at the Monkey Mia Resort which I totally recommend as it is a lovely place by itself, with a camping ground and units right along the beach, a couple of bars and restaurants also with beach views and then there is the added bonus of seeing the dolphins on and off all day! There were times when dolphins came into the swimming area and the people in the water got quite close - it was a bit cold and windy for us to hang around in the water though! They had documentaries about the local area and about dolphins playing all day which the kids wandered in and out of and found very educational!
They will feed the dolphins up to 3 times in a morning if they keep coming back in, so if you are staying there you can hang around on the beach and will be amongst a much smaller group for the later feeds. The first feed at 08:30 is the one where the tour buses come so there can be a ridiculous amount of people and no chance of getting picked. We were lucking on our 2nd day that the dolphins came back a 2nd time and Jack got picked! I managed a short video which I think is good enough to use as advertising footage!! They only feed certain dolphins and only a small amount as they want them to catch most of their food naturally as they found the babies were dying as the mothers were hanging around the shallow water too much waiting to be fed and the calves couldn't attach to get their milk!
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| Jess loved this model of Nikki, the matriarch of the dolphins |
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| With Lleyton and the dolphins! |
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| Nikki was due to give birth any day after a 12 month pregnancy! |
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| What an amazing experience! |
They could use this video for an ad!
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| Beach at Monkey Mia Resort |
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| With the early morning crowds... |
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| Campground is right next to the beach! |
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| We hadn't seen one of these German made tour buses before! Not quite sure I'd like to sleep in one of those cubicles.... |
On the drive out from Monkey Mia, we stopped at Shell Beach which is composed of a huge, very shallow lagoon and the beach consists entirely of small shells. Absolutely beautiful but the flies were horrendous!! The kids were practically hysterical in the carpark but it was much better down on the beach thank goodness!
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| Shell Beach and Lagoon |
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| Great action shot - thanks Rohan! |
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