Denham to Monkey Mia

A year after visiting Shark Bay on a giuded trip I returned with UWA Outdoor club for an unsupported paddle from Denham to Monkey Mia

Crossing the 26th Parallel

To break up the long drive to Shark Bay we stopped over in Kalbarri, feasting at Finlay’s legendary fish BBQ. Eventually we arrived at Denham and spent a lazy afternoon packing our heavily loaded kayaks. For this trip we would need 5 days worth of food and fresh water as well as the usual camping and safety gear. In addition I managed to squeeze a large chocolate birthday cake for Alex.

Monday

Excitement got the better of us and we were up at 6 to finish our preparations. With our trip plan lodged with the volunteer water rescue and the camps safely abandoned for the week we were finally ready to leave. The faintest of tail winds saw us creep out of Denham and into the near empty wilderness that is Shark Bay.

We had lunch at the entrance to Big Lagoon. The original plan had been to paddle 2km into the lagoon and camp there. However it was decided to press on up the coast to reduce the distance that we needed to paddle the next day.

Soon we were flanked by stark red cliffs and it was at the foot of these that we stopped for the night. I think this was my favorite camp on the trip, tucked in the dunes with the cliffs behind us under a starry sky.

Looking along the coast from our camp

Some confusion in reading the tide chart lead us to believe that there wasn’t going to be a high tide overnight. Fortunately Sean, Simon and Brad were alert enough to wake up and spot the error in our ways; dragging the kayaks to safety just in time.

Tuesday

With such a big group of relatively inexperienced paddlers it took us a while to get on the water in the morning but our fears about a lack of water were allayed.

What slight breeze there was yesterday dropped to nothing leaving us to make our own way towards the ever growing cliffs near Point Peron. As well as lots of rays and reef sharks we also spotted an absolutely huge turtle and a sea eagle.

Sheltering from the sun under our humpy

With the extra distance covered the previous day we were able to arrive at Bottle Bay not long after lunch. This allowed the group to go fishing, snorkeling, kayak snorkeling and generally relax in preparation for rounding the point the next day.

Wednesday

Today was my turn to lead the group and I was a little apprehensive as we would be turning south into the strengthening head winds.

We were soon at Point Peron and stopped to climb up to the look out and have a peak around the corner at the blustery conditions. With my troops steeled for action we set off. Initial forecasts and fears were not as bad as we thought and as soon as we entered the shallow waters at the edge of Herald Bite the waves dropped and the wind turned out to be more of a cross wind.

Simon nearing Point Peron

After lunch the wind really started to drop and we made our intended campsite with enough time for an afternoon stroll.

Just as it was getting dark Dan’s brother in law arrived on a trail bike promising that there was a 4x4 following loaded with snags and cold beers. However the car never arrived and eventually the bike went back to see where they were. It turned out that they had a puncture and the jack had broken. We never did get our cold beer but they managed to dig out the wheel in the soft sand and make it back to Monkey Mia.

Thursday

We awoke to the strongest winds of the trip and 5km of open water to cross to Guichenault Point. Upon setting off it became immediately apparent that Alex was struggling in the bath tub like Storm kayak. We quickly set up a running V tow system which allowed two paddlers to help him along. Even with this system is was seriously hard work into a wind that gusted to approximately 18 knots.

Again once we were past Herald Bluff the wind was across us and seemed to drop. At near high tide we had no problems crossing the several sand bars in this area.

Our second major drama of the day came when someone noticed that Brad was sinking rather quickly. Fortunately we were close to a beach and were able to land. It appeared that a combination of bad packing, waves and a dodgy hatch cover had completely filled his rear hatch with water. All of his dry bags were still intact and after pumping out the hatch we re-arranged his load, swapped a better hatch cover on and stuff the compartment with our spare Type 1 PFDs. This seemed to do the trick.

That night we were treated to fish for dinner as Alex and Brad landed a pair of large Long Toms.

The last supper (of fish)

Friday

Our final and shortest as we again paddled into the wind. After only 12km we arrived at the busy Monkey Mia resort in time for lunch. Not finished with paddling a few of us emptied all of out gear out, marveling at he much lighter, more maneuverable boats, we went for a paddle with the playful local dolphins. Our greatest wildlife revelation came that night when, after dinner, we headed down to the jetty with torches and spotted a striped sea snake.

All that left was the long drive home, which was full of plans for next year’s adventure.

Looking towards Monkey Mia

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