Thurs 10 Oct 2013 - Seeing Stromatolites at Hamelin’s Pool

We woke up to find it was a clear sunny day and not too windy. 

We set off for Shark Bay and arrived at the first place of interest, Hamelin's Pool, at lunch time. 

Andrew had asked us to try to get some photos of the stromatalites and this is where they live. They're considered to be the world's oldest living creatures and were thought to be extinct until somebody found them alive and well here. They like Hamlin's Pool because it's shallow and very salty and, although they're all along the shore, BHP have paid for a walkway to be built so they can be easily viewed without getting destroyed. A little girl, about 6, summed it up well. She said to her mother, "Where are they?" Her mother pointed over the fence and showed her and the little girl said, doubtfully, "They don't look very important, do they, but they are really special, aren’t they?"

Baby S Colonies

babies close up

Mature

Mature Close up

Dying

Nearby is the old Telegraph Station, where there's a camping ground and an old fashioned tearooms cum gift shop, it's very quaint. 

We had our lunch here and then went for a walk to see the quarry where they used to cut blocks of shell stone to build with, called coquina. It's made of millions of tiny shells compressed together, using calcium carbonate, which is released when it rains.

Shell brick cottage

close up of one of the shell bricks

From here we went to Shell Beach, the whole of it made up of billions of tiny shells for miles and miles – and the beach is mined as well.

Eagle Bluff was next, a viewing area over the estuary from which you're supposed to be able to view the wildlife, but we didn't see much today, just a few shadows under the water .Shark Bay’s heritage listed because of its seagrass, a 100sq klms of it.  This is important as it stabilises the seabed and allows dunes to form.  It also provides ideal conditions for a fish nursery and therefore all the creatures that feed on tiny fish all the way up the food chain to Tiger Sharks. There is a big population of Dugongs here in the Summer months as they love to graze on the seagrass, but the water’s still a bit cold for them at the moment.

Lagoon with seagrass

Now we're in a camping ground in a small town called Denham which is close to Monkey Mia. We arrived here in time for a swim in the pool before dinner.

didn't see any Bilbys