After we left Geraldton, we headed off again towards Denham and Monkey Mia. Our original plan was to stop at Kalbarri, but unfortunately, the roads leading into the national park were closed for several months so that the roads could be repaired, apparently due to the floods they had earlier in the year. So we decided to hightail it to Monkey Mia instead.

We overnighted it in a little camp about 50km out of Denham and made our way into Monkey Mia first thing in the morning. When we arrived there were several dolphins in the water and when we were allowed down to the waters edge, we vied for a spot amongst the 171 other people that were there.

I like to think that I’m a pretty mindful person and especially if I’m viewing something, I’ll always check that I haven’t cut off someone’s view or that all the kids can get a good position to see things. Turns out I’m clearly in the minority as all the adults pushed their way to the front leaving the little kids looking at the backs of legs. I tried to be subtle and reassure Miss A and Miss B loudly that someone will move soon and let them have a look, but subtly wasn’t cutting it. In the end, I just pushed them in between people so they could stand in front of them, making the comment that if people wouldn’t move for them, they’d have to make room for themselves. I’m not normally rude but it was really disappointing that no one acknowledged that there were kids who couldn’t see a thing.

Anyway, they got to see the dolphins in the end so all was right with the world!

And during the second feeding a few hours later, there were less people and more of a chance for the kids to get up close.

After checking out the town of Denham and buying some bait, we headed to our stop for the night, Tamala Station. On the way we stopped at Shell Beach, which is, as you’d expect, a beach full of shells.  But what’s interesting about this beach is that the shells are virtually like sand.  Millions of tiny little cockle shells form the basis of this beach! It was pretty interesting to see it!

We finally made it to Tamala Station, which is on the road that leads to the Westerly Most point of Mainland Australia – Steep Point. We spent three nights at Tamala Station, which wasn’t without drama as we looked for a spot to camp. The soft sand saw us bogged and Corey having to shovel us out!

But we did find a spot to set up which had a good view and proved to be a good base to head out to the point the next day.  And of course – as we tend to do – once we’d set up, we hit the beach for the sunset.

We headed out to Steep Point the next day and were anticipating a super bumpy trip.  All the reviews had said that the last eight kms were really rough, but to our surprise it wasn’t too bad.  In fact, the first quarter of the track once you got off the graded road was the worst part of the whole track, we thought.  But perhaps our suspension is just doing a really good job! Anyway, we made it to the point and stopped for lunch… and a beer!

We headed back via the blowholes, which, not surprisingly weren’t blowing any water, but I guess we can say we ticked it off!

There were lots of goats around in the paddocks and on the beaches and tracks around our campsite. Very inquisitive, the girls were happy to chase them around on their bikes.

The next day we just chilled out at the beach, the girls playing games and just getting dirty outside.  They collected sea urchin shells on the beach and shells and Miss B found a skeleton of some kind of fish – we’re not quite sure what it is though!

I made them some hackysacks out of sand in plastic freezer bags and they enjoyed trying to throw, catch and balance them. We did some ekindy work and the girls had to guess the items and describe how they felt, smelt or tasted.

And, as the sun set on another few days, it was soon time to pack up again and keep moving.

Have you ever been to the tips of mainland Australia – North, South, East or West? Do you beachcomb, looking for unusual shells or remains of animals?