Even more from Monkey Mia

As part of our boat cruise package we also got to go on a morning wild life cruise. So we all boarded the Shotover again and went looking for sea creatures. We were followed by dolphins again and saw a couple of enormous logger head turtles on the way out. We got to see lots of dugongs which are very strange looking animals. They are also known as sea cows as they spend all their time eating the sea grass from the bottom of the ocean. They surface every so often to breathe which is why you can see them quite easily. They can grow to about 3 metres which is too big for the sharks to bother with. However the sharks do manage to eat about half of all the babies born every year which keeps the population to sustainable levels.
On the way back we got to see a Leopard Shark too. I was a bit slack with my camera on this boat trip, too much time sitting back and relaxing, but I did manage a few shots.









The kids spent lots of time below deck on the beds for some reason. Charlie has decided he wants to be a boat driver when he grows up. So I guess he was getting in practice.

You would think that after a morning spent on a catamaran that the kids would spend the afternoon resting. No way, not the Brookes brothers. Instead they talked Michael into letting them hire a glass bottom boat and they all spent an hour sailing around looking for pearl shells.






They found lots of pearl shells but no pearls unfortunately. However they do like eating the raw pearl meat so that kept them from asking for food for a few more minutes!

We have met up with a family that we met for the first time on the Geike Gorge boat trip back in Fitzroy Crossing. They are planning a trip out to Steep Point which is the westernmost point of mainland Australia and asked if we wanted to come with them. It is a very long and tricky 4WD track out there which would mean leaving the caravan at one of the stations and then taking our tents. They don't want to leave until Thursday but I am pretty sure we will wait for them and give it a try. A lot of locals rave about the place and it is about time for another adventure in the tents. Since we have been to the southernmost and easternmost points before it would be great to get to the western one. It is also one of the best fishing spots in the country so if we don't manage to catch something out there we never will!