Day 7 Monkey Mia to Carnarvon

Checked out of Monkey Mia, waving goodbye to the pair of emus seeing us off next to the resort reception. We stopped at Shell Beach for the final one of the Shark Bay heritage sites. It just looks like a long white beach at first, but on closer inspection, millions of tiny shells make up soft waves of beach that bury your feet as you walk towards the water. 

The shells are a renewable resource and are being harvested for building blocks, such as the ones that made up the fancy Old Pearler restaurant and a church in Denham. The action of waves compacts them together so that you can make blocks from them; the loose ones are used for lining walkways in the way we would use pebbles.

The drive to Carnarvon was unexciting, as we are getting used to the red dirt and dry scrubby Australian interior landscapes. We managed not to hit any wildlife, which is an achievement given the number of things that like to slither or jump onto the road. Carnarvon is a pretty little town, and it’s in the middle of a lush growing region so it stands out from the surrounding dry landscapes. It seemed quite windswept though they tell us it’s not always this windy. The boys wanted to play footy and cricket in the local oval rather than explore. I got some quiet time to do yoga and then enjoyed a big supermarket shop where I could restock on favourites.