Sunday 7 April 2013

Easter Saturday at Francois Peron National Park


30 March 2013

Shark Bay really lived up to its name today – we’ve never seen so many sharks in our life!  Mostly they were all small ones, but even so, a shark is a shark!  They just look cool. Today we saw two dugongs, dolphins, manta rays, eagle rays, a turtle, and sharks shovel-nosed rays galore. 

A small pod of dolphins were playing out from the clifftop lookout called Skipjack Point where we watched the marine life for almost two hours. I could’ve stayed there longer but everyone else had had enough.  I wasn’t going to leave until I saw a sea snake.  I’m hopeful I’ll see a sea snake before I go.

But the absolute highlight of the day was as we were leaving the boardwalk a big dugong was swimming by really close to shore so you could clearly see it’s bulk as it moved quickly through the water. We’d seen one earlier but it was much further out and you couldn’t see the detail. Then we also saw a giant manta ray, with our eyes it was a big blob in the water but when I used the binoculars I was blown away to see just how big it was and it was right up on the surface of the water too.

It was just fabulous.  It’s almost up there with Barna Mia!


Skipjack Point
 


Lunch at Cape Peron was hot! (and tiring for some).
 
Cape Peron and its resident cormorants



My first fish catch!  

At Herald Bight in the Francois Peron National Park I caught my very first fish.  It was small and I have no idea what it was called but it was fun!  I caught it while standing in the clear shallows of shark-infested waters (how dramatic does that sound?).

We’d pulled up beside some mangroves in the hope of seeing some turtles as our neighbouring campers had seen some there the day before. Unfortunately we didn’t see any turtles. But from the car we could see sharks swimming up and down just metres from the waters edge. 

When we got out the car we were surprised to see dozens of shovel-nosed rays swimming past us almost continuously.  It was really fun to watch. 

Still no sea snakes.


Fishing at Herald Bight


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