Francois Peron National Park

1st July 2014

This morning we went to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins for the last time.  We stood out on the jetty instead of on the beach and 3 of them put on a spectacular display leaping out of the water seemingly just for the exhilaration.  Prior to this they had been catching the small fish around the jetty by swimming on their backs which traps the fish between them and the surface; then quickly snap at the fish before it gets away.

Nicky, the paparazzi dolphin

The weather today was beautiful again and the warmest day yet, about 26 degrees and very calm.  We went into the Francois Peron NP and drove to Big Lagoon, which is actually a series of interconnected lagoons running up the western side of the peninsula.  John was a bit nervous about driving in the soft sand but he did fine.

Reducing tyre pressure for the sand tracks

Francois Peron was the naturalist on board the French expedition ship Naturaliste which sailed into Shark Bay in 1801.  He was the first European to scientifically catalogue the wildlife in the bay and also study the indigenous Malgana people; the National Park has been named in his honour.

The first European to have definitely visited these shores was Dirk Hartog, a Dutch explorer who nailed an inscribed pewter plate to a tree in 1616.  A sort of 'Dirk Hartog wuz here'!  The island where this occurred is named after him.

Big lagoon

We finished up the day in the NP by having another dip in the hot tub and using the excellent BBQ facilities to cook dinner.  Then watched another brilliant sunset.