We left Monkey Mia reasonably early this morning, and then started the four and half hour drive to Carnarvon. We stopped at Shelly Beach, which is was about an hour out if Monkey Mia. Shelly beach is literally covered in small shells. It really was quite spectacular! The water there was even calmer than the water at Monkey Mia!

Our next stop was at the Stromatolites. There was a short walk out on a boardwalk to go and see them. While we were walking to the boardwalk, we heard a bird thats ‘call’ sounds like it is saying “did you get drunk, did you get drunk, did you get drunk, did you get drunk…” That was quite interesting to listen to, however we were not able to actually see the bord unfortunately. There were a lot more stromatolites there than at Lake Thesis, where we saw some about a week ago. It was rather engrossing and fascinating. We learnt that the stromatolites are actually made of layers of microbial mats. There is a certain type of slime that encases the stromatolites, protecting it from the sun and also drying out. The stromatolites are about three billion years old which is about 75% of earths geologic history. Cyanobacteria inside the microbial mats has influenced Earth’s evolution by breathing oxygen into the atmosphere.

After the stromatolites, we pretty much just drove straight to Carnarvon. After setting up the van in Carnarvon we went for a drive around to all of the fruit and veggie stalls/shops. At one place we actually had to wait for them to go and harvest some more corn and lettuce, because they had run out. You can’t get much fresher than that!!
We went for a walk along the Mile Long Jetty. That was nice, but a bit windy. We made our own pizzas for tea, they were rather scrumptious I have to say!!

Tara