The first feeding of the dolphins was at 8:00am, so we wandered down to the beach at 7:45am, to see if there was anything happening yet. There were five dolphins already in the shallows and, according to another person there, had been there since before 7:00am, just splashing around. Looking at the number of people standing knee deep in the water, we estimated 50 people to be standing in a line, watching the dolphins, while a ranger walked up and down the line slowly to make sure everyone stayed at knee-depth, and that everyone got a chance to see the dolphins.

Although the dolphins are wild, they are relatively tamed in that they come to the same beach three times a day, every day to be fed fish by humans, so they’re not as wild as could be. It was interesting to note that because the rangers do not feed male dolphins, or the babies, so that they learn to feed for themselves. That being said, the only dolphins to come in are female adults, and their most recent offspring that travel with them. Surprise, surprise.

The dolphins obviously know the source of food, because they follow the ranger like dogs, even responding to his call for them to come in closer to the people along the beach. We suppose they are wild in the sense that they do not jump through a hoop, but they still put on a bit of a performance to get food. Is that a trick of sorts? The dolphins are fed only 1/5th of their average daily diet so they “don’t become dependent on handouts”, but while they may not rely on handouts to survive, they still come in to shore and get some freebies, which is a little dependent. Think about it - if you could go and get free food three times per day, instead of having to chase it down and expend energy, wouldn’t you go to that free food source?

We were not allowed to touch the dolphins, but they were allowed to interact with us. This was a warning issued to us by the CALM rangers on the grounds that if someone were to irritate a dolphin by, say, sticking a finger in it’s blowhole, it could headbutt the person in defence, and break their leg. In that respect, they are indeed wild dolphins, although one suspects *any* dolphin would be less than impressed to have a finger in it’s blowhole… Flipper would even get a bit angry, we’d dare say.

Reading the above text, it would appear that the trip to Monkey Mia was not an enjoyable experience. Far from it. It was fantastic to look down into the clear water and see dolphins playing right there, with the ability to leave at any time they wished. Before the feeding, everyone is allowed into the water to knee-depth, but at the time of feeding, everyone is made to leave the water, and then only the rangers (or ranger helpers) with the fish buckets, and the selected people are allowed in the water. It was very interesting to see people’s definitions of “out of the water”, with some people believing that so long as mid-shin is above water level, they are out of the water. The ranger told one woman she had to get out of the water, and she insisted she was, despite still standing in eight inches of water. If that woman thinks eight inches is nothing, she is a very spoiled woman…*lewd grin*

At the first feeding, there were about 70 people by the time that the fish were given to the dolphins, so the odds of selection were okay, but low. Neither of us got selected to feed a fish at that time. At the second feeding, human numbers had decreased and dolphin numbers had increased, with a third eligible-to-be-fed dolphin arriving. With the extra chances, and less people, Diana got selected to feed a dolphin, although the hand did not linger too long near the foot-long toothy mouth as the dolphin clamped shut on the offering.

At the completion of the second feeding, we went for a swim to cool off due to the sun beginning to beat down upon us. The sun was made worse by the fact that Trav had donned his bathers for only the third time in a few years, and had no sunscreen on his legs. Before you point out Trav’s stupidity, please note that neither of us had applied sunscreen to our legs because the information brochure told us dolphins didn’t like the greasy oil slick that resulted when we stood in the water to watch them. By the time the second feeding was over, it was about 10:30am and we’d been standing outside in the sun for a few hours, so we both got really sunburned across the backs of our legs.

During the swim in the chest-deep clear water, Diana suddenly looked over Trav’s shoulder and said “dolphin”. Trav turned around to find there was indeed a dolphin swimming within a metre of us, although Trav’s first thought was “shark”. Call me stupid, but when we’re swimming in Shark Bay, where there are signs saying “swimmers beware - sharks often sighted in bay” and I turn around to find a dark shape and dorsal fin cutting through the water only a metre away, I don’t think “dolphin”. The whole group ended up swimming through the humans, which was a weird experience to be that close to a dolphin, when they had no obligation to come near us at all - we had no fish for them, and they had an entire ocean to swim in.

Invariably we found our Stupid Person Of The Day, and this one was streets ahead of the rest of the contenders. (Note to Americans: you must surely have some decent representatives of your country to show us - send them out here instead of the idiots that keep gracing our shores). Yes, this person was an American, with an extremely piercing twang to her voice. We got the impression from other encounters around the park with her that she was a professional traveller, and her slightly-overcooked brown tanning seemed to support this argument.

Arriving two days previous to us, she had seen the dolphins on the previous day, at all three feedings. On the morning when we saw the feedings for the first time, she was blowing kisses to the dolphins, and speaking in that baby language reserved for use by people who own those small, yapping, useless dogs. One of the dolphins was called Nicky, and the entire morning was filled with her voice over-riding the rangers with a one-way conversation of :

“Hello Nicking Darling! I love you! Yes! Yes! I do! I do love you, my beautiful little baby! {blow a kiss} Yes Nicky Darling! We *all* love you! Oh, you are sooo beautiful! I love you so much! {blow a kiss} You’re so cute and wonderful - oh, we all love you! Yes, we really do! {blow several kisses}”

She had seen the dolphins up close, by her own admission, only the previous day, but she had been “unable to sleep all last night just thinking about these beautiful babies! Aren’t they beautiful! Yes they are! Yes, you are sooo beautiful, aren’t you Nicky Darling! Oh my beautiful little Nicky Darling! {blowing a kiss} We all love you oh so much! You’re so gorgeous Nicky Darling! Yes you are! {blowing more kisses}”. Nonetheless, this lack of previous experience did not stop her talking to the rangers as though she had been living with dolphins all her life, and generally putting a pained expression on the ranger’s face every time she spoke, because he was so close to the accent. In fairness to her, it was not a Fran Drescher accent, but it was still not pleasant to listen to.

The remainder of the day was spent lazing about in the pool and hot tub, which was a very relaxing way to spend the heat of the day. Ate dinner about 7:30pm, and sat around enjoying the cool of the evening, which we had been craving earlier.

We could have gone on a sunset cruise on a catamaran around the bay, but could not afford it, so we’d stayed back in camp. About 8pm, the cruise returned, and three of our fellow campers returned to eat their meal. However, seeing as they had not been planning to stay for the night, they had no food left. The take-away shop was closed, and the resort restaurant was extremely expensive (cheapest main = $17.50). One of them managed to find a pasta-n-sauce packet, which required milk and butter. They had no milk, but had some cream left over which they thinned down with water, so they were okay in that respect.

We knew they had no butter because they had discussed this near our table at one point, yet we saw them using butter later. It was at this point we lost our faith in humanity, because we realised it was OUR butter they had gotten from the fridge - from inside a tied-up plastic bag, inside another tied-up plastic bag. We were about ten metres away, so they could have asked us if they could use it, and we would not have minded. Yes, they should have planned better, but what were we going to say? The tub was almost full (bought the previous day) so we could not have said we needed it all in the morning for breakfast. Why they did not ask is beyond us.

Trav wandered over to get a drink from the fridge at one point, feeling very irritated about this theft, and one of them asked “is this your butter?” He replied that it was, and they said “Generous”. After the greasiest look he could muster, he said “yeah, looks like it” and returned to the table. They got extremely offended at this comment, and did not speak to us after that for the rest of the night, because they were not impressed we were obviously not of a sharing nature. The really annoying thing is that all they had to do was ask, and we would have shared. Because they STOLE the food without asking, Di and Trav ended up feeling like the villains of the situation.

Three other backpackers from Switzerland arrived late in the evening - two girls and a guy - in a very small car they’d hired from Perth. All three of them were sleeping in a small tent, so we tried to guess how the guy had gotten lucky enough to be crammed into a tent between two good-looking girls. They’d only been in the country for two days, but we figured he’d be definitely enjoying Australia so far…*grin*

Returning south tomorrow, onward to Geraldton…

Categories: Travel, WA 1999