After abseiling we went for a walk through and up Z Shaped Gorge, so called because of its unusual right angle turns caused by millions of years of erosion and tectonic wharble, wharble wharble whar...
Near to Z Shaped gorge (i.e. less than 100kms) is another famous West Coast rock formation called ‘Nature’s Window.’ This beautiful, ‘natural’ hole was caused by erosion of the surrounding landscape and is made all the more spectacular by the fact you can also see a magnificent valley when staring straight into it. At certain times of the year the moon also rises through the centre like a natural ‘stone henge’ which led to its aboriginal name of ‘Moo-N-ee.’
We drove for another few hours North and stopped off at a huge billabong for a swim. The billabong was about half the size of a full swimming pool and was sunk about 2 meters into the ground before the water line. This led to some quality front roll, back flip and bellyflop action as we jumped in.
I wished I’d taken my camera and got a couple of pics. I also so wished I’d put swimmers on that morning. There was no way to get any, as my backpack was under about 20 others in the trailer. I went swimming in my shorts then figured I’d go commando on the way back so my shorts could dry out quicker and I wouldn’t have to sit on the bus all wet. The only thing is, I left my pants drying on a tree, a major loss for a backpacker with only a limited supply. Therefore, for any backpackers heading north and stopping off at a big billabong, if you see a grey pair of Calvin’s hanging on a tree, could you grab them and send them back to me. Nice one.
In recent weeks I’ve found myself getting a bit blasé about million year old rock formations because interesting as they are, I’ve been spoilt and seen loads of ‘em. The Stramatolites however, are different. These rocks aren’t rocks. They’re relatives of the very first life forms on the planet.
Made up of tiny organisms, these Stramatolites appeared around 350 Billion (yes billion) years ago and made the Earth into the place it is today. Over a space of about 200 Billion years they formed these rocks, and as a natural part of their little lives, produced tiny bubbles of oxygen (you can still see them producing bubbles today) these bubbles changed the Earth’s air from just nitrogen, to 20% Oxygen allowing all of us to come about.
They used to cover the planet but now they only exist in a few places in the world. The natural shelf of Shark Bay here in Oz is one of them. This one of the few places where you'll see what the earth looked like all those years ago.
Hardly exciting stuff, but totally fascinating all the same.
It got me thinking about the ‘grand scheme of things’ again. Quick quiz;
How much more advanced are you than an aboriginal person born 20,000 years ago?
Can you imagine how long a year is?
Can you imagine ten years?
Can you imagine a hundred Years? A thousand Years? A Million years? A Billion? How about 350 Billion?
Aboriginal people counted 1, 2, 3 then it was just classed as ‘many.’ Are we so different? We can say ‘a billion’ just like they said ‘many’ but do we actually have any concept of how big or how much that is?
Thankyou if you’re still reading and haven’t got bored and started looking at porn. One of the great things about travelling is you can think about stuff you’d usually class as a waste of brainpower.
After the Stramatolites, we headed to Shell Beach for a swim. Like most stuff in WA it does exactly what it says on the tin. Again due the Shark Bay natural shelf, the 60km beach is made up entirely of a shells (10m deep) rather than sand.
Oh and Shark Bay? Well it has the highest concentration of sharks and different types of shark (Tigers, Hammerheads, Great Whites etc) anywhere in the world. While we played Frisbee in the shallow water, Mick gave us a quick safety briefing, “If you see a fin, or you see me running… Get out.”
We spent the night at Denham on the Shark Bay peninsular. It was a nice little town (a beach, a couple of hotels/hostels, a mullet pub) but the best bit for me was the family of wild emus that kept running across the road and going around town trying to look inconspicuous.
DAY 3
We went to Monkey Mia early the next day, probably the biggest anti-climax (so far) on the West Coast. Primarily, the Ronseal naming system doesn’t apply as there’s no Monkeys. Secondly, the ‘Swim with the wild dolphins’ image the place likes to sell is a ruined when you get there and you have to stand only just in the water and listen as they tell you how the ‘wild’ dolphins come here three times a day to feed, and will bite you if you step any nearer.
“How would you like it?” They said “If every morning when you came down for breakfast, a hundred people all wanted to come up and stroke and touch you?” I felt like saying, “It depends… What if I’d invited those people to travel a thousand kilometres to come and touch and stroke me over breakfast, then have my personal little Hitler with a dolphin badge come up and tell them to stand back or I’ll bite them...?”
The pelicans on the beach however were far more fun.
After watching successive Japanese tourists get too close, get snapped at, then run away. I thought I’d put my Matt ’Danger’ Kingsnorth hat on and try and get one to bite me for a photo.
