Day 8 Friday 27/7/18



Day 8 Friday 27/7/18

This will be a big driving day....724km from Exmouth to Monkey Mia, so got an early start leaving Exmouth at 7:30 am.  Up and packed before sunrise.  Breakfast watching the sunrise - morning was pleasant.....nothing like Melbourne at the moment!!

Dawn, from breakfast table

A little later

Later still


Our room in the dawn light


Then off down the North Western Highway, crossing first the Tropic of Capricorn and then the 26th Parallel, leaving the North West, or so the sign said.

 
Ant hill - one of many along the way.

Tropic of Capricorn!!
Shortly after we left the Highway, turning right towards Monkey Mia and along the way re-crossed the 26th parallel and re-entered the North West.

Wild flowers have increased a lot since coming this way 4 days ago

Gascoyne River, not in flood at the moment!
Lunch at Carnarvon
Arrived in Carnarvon about 11:30Am and visited the bakery for lunch, sitting down on the harbor whilst we ate.
26th Parallel...again

More wildflowers

Stopped off for a look at the Stomatolites in Hamlyn Pool. These are formed by single cell organisms and were the first form of life on Earth over 350million years ago. Hamlyn Pool is protected by a “reef” formed of sea grass which has trapped sand in it forming a sort of filter barrier. For this reason and because rainfall in the area is only about 200mm per annum and the pool is shallow with a very high evaporation rate, salt level in the pool is about 2.5 higher higher than normal sea water. This means that very few fish can survive in the pool and so the micro-organism’s are protected from predators.
Stromatalites at Hamlyn Pool
Hamlyn Pool boardwalk

More stromatalytes

Hamlyn Pool

And even more stromatalytes

From here we moved on to the Resort at Monkey Mia. When friends visited here in the late 90’s there was nothing here and very few people, they certainly wouldn’t recognize it now. The resort is in the middle of a construction phase so finding your way around is a bit tricky (Maritta was right for once about where we should go), our booking agent had rung us to advise of this but the advice might have been a bit more useful if they had provided some direction to where reception were hiding, it wasn’t obvious. Still it’s a lovely spot and our room is right on the bay (as are most) looking North West.
Lot of development going on at Monkey Mia Resort

Maritta relaxing after a hard day photographing wildflowers

View from our room

Sunset ......sunrise and sunset in the same day - how spoilt are we Melbournians!.

Absolutely stunning!!

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