Wednesday 29th October – Fine Sunny some cloud, some wind

Leaving Denham, we called into the Ocean Aquarium on the outskirts.  We saw some fellow tag team campers that we run into here and there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The aquarium is basic, they have a constant loop of marine biologists giving talks on the various tanks and have shark feeding.  It was very interesting and surprising how much time we spent there. 

This is a green turtle who lost one of his front flippers who is being care for until he can be released.storm through it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lion Fish and (right) Stone Fish – no wonder people step on them, I could not see them in the tank because they just looked like a couple of rocks.

Shark Feeding

There is a bridge over the the tank area with a centre rotunda.  The bridge is a bit rickety, so there may come the day when a few go in for a swim the sharks.

 

 

 

They have a great cafe overlooking the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

It was about 128 kms just back to the Northern Coastal Road, before we headed south.

It was quite cool at Denham, but once we were on the road south, the temperature changed.  At Billabong Roadhouse where we refuelled, the temperature was 38.5 and still going up.  It was nice though, after the cool days in Denham.

As we travelled further south, we came down off the plateau and the temperature changed to cooler again and the arid red sand dunes went, trees appeared and rolling open fields.  Big trees again, grassy fields :)

We have camped at Galena Rest Area on the Murchison River.  We actually have water in the river :)

The lower bridge is the old bridge and the high bridge the new highway.  We thought it was algae in the river, but it is weed.  Lots of ducks here.

 

 

 

 

This is the first black swan that we have seen in WA.

What we did see here today, which was totally amazing was a Splendid Fairy Wren – three shades of blue, absolutely brilliant blue. This has to be one of the most striking of the wrens.

 

 

 

There is a huge area to camp on both sides of the river.  Amazingly most people seem to camp close to the road and persevere with the traffic noise.  We did a drive around and found a great spot out of the wind on the northern bank back from the road about 1.5 kms.

 

 

 

  There were a lot of birds around and we had both the Red Capped Robin and the Mistletoe Bird.  Both are Black Red White – really stunning colours.  The Splendid Wren also came through on dusk – no chance of getting a photo.

The water is very clear and the green you see is the weed growing in it which is great cover for the fish.