Stomatolites and Shells

Before leaving Carnarvon we went back down to the jetty to ride the Coffee Pot train with the children, (and the big kids too!) They are building a rather large reef interpretive centre there, which should be finished this month, but it seems to have a long way to go to me. Anyway, we rode the train to the end, and were told that they had lost almost fifty metres of the jetty to deliberately lit fires over the last ten years, and each fire puts it out of action for months. It is a great shame because the town relies on tourism to help it's economy.


Early the following morning we set out for Denham and Shark Bay, some 4 hours south, and the World Heritage centre in the Francois Peron National Park. It is named after an anthropologist who sailed with Captain Nicholas Baudin in 1801, but the area was first landed by Captain Dirk Hartog in 1616, many years before Cook's expeditions to the east coast.
Our first stop was at the Stromatelites, an area almost unique in the world as it has cyanbacteria whose origins date from more that 3.5 billion years ago, and is a lifeform that existed long before any other on earth. Because of it, there is sufficient oxygen on earth to support higher lifeforms, and led eventually to ourselves.
The bacteria grows in clumps and builds up into groups which looks a little like cauliflowers, and the reason why it flourishes only in this small bay is because it is extremely salty, and other creatures cannot live here to graze on it. Quite fascinating that we can be in this very exclusive place.





We moved on to a beach which is entirely composed of small shells, up to six feet deep, and is about a mile long. I didn't count them but there must have been a few billion!

The last week or so has been very windy, and it has intensified here, with gales up to 65 kph, making it quite a bit cooler unfortunately. It is likely to remain so for another couple of days. So we are once again in a cabin, in Denham, a lovely small village on the peninsula, just across from a resort called Monkey Mia, ous main purpose for being here. the view from our cabin is spectacular, across the bay to a series of islands, with boats bobbing at their moorings, but we did manage a few drinks on the balcony with Karen and Lee, and a BBQ inside.


Tomorrow we will go to see Monkey Mia itself, and the dolphins, dugongs and sharks in the bay. No monkeys though!