21^st August:Denham

Driving south from Carnarvon, we saw more featureless country. I never realised how flat, dry and seemingly endless this country is. Goats, sheep and cattle on the roadside but remarkably, it didn't look as if many of them actually strayed into the path of vehicles. More grass than we've seen before and yellow flowers on the side of the road. Small shrubs are less sparse. But, oh,so flat!! 

 

Then suddenly, into the flatness intruded a long line of white sandstone mesas. White Bluff appeared, standing high on the plain and we quickly decided to climb up and have a look – sealed road! White Bluff is about 100 metres high and obviously was created in a time when the sea-level was higher. It was so flat all around and the view was spectacular. I could see over to the bottom edge of Shark Bay. Lots of cars with vans had climbed the steep road to have a look and in the far corner, on the edge of the cfliff, facing into nothingness, was a collection of garden gnomes! Now, who takes a garden gnome on a trip like this? (Yes, I know, it was a jokey thing travellers did some time ago but some of these are newish!!) They were gazing out, keeping watch, ever vigilant and silent!! Funny!

From here, we enter red sand dune country again. The sky was filled with threatening gret clouds and we drove through a number of heavy, scudding showers. But, I can't begrudge this dry land some water. Grass will be there next week.

We stopped at Hamelin Pool which is a section of Shark Bay right down in the southern corner. Water gets trapped here and so, due to high temperatures (up to 45 C in summer) and constant winds, evaporates and the sea becomes very salty – twice the normal. Very little life can survive in this extreme environment except very ancient types of microrganisms like cyanobacteria, the sort that covered the earth 3.5 billion years ago and first photosynthisised to create oxygen! These form mats and grow at an incredibly slow rate and this is one of the few places in the world these “extremiphiles” exist. They are called stromatalites. (Ipperwash , on Lake Huon in Canada is another place they can be seen. We almost froze to death there looking at them!) Unfortunately, it was high tide and we will have to go back to get good photos.

While here, we also looked at the shell-block quarry. There are only two places in the world this phenonmen exists and again it is because of the extreme conditions of the area. A tiny cockle shell, the Flagum ,has lived in this highly saline water for millions of years and the shells have compacted into a material that can be quarried and used for building. Now days, thequarry is Heritage listed and is only used to repair buildings in Denham that were built with these blocks. But there is a beach we hope to visit where, instead of sand, there are millions of shells. It is called, suprisingly, Shell Beach.

Denham is a quiet little fishing village on the waters edge. It is very pretty and, once again, a secluded place that one could escape the world at. I am so glad I booked as none of the 3 caravan parks had sites left and were turning people away. And it is a long way in to be refused entry! We are parked in an odd corner right at the front while Gail is back further. The rain appears to have gone and we will return to the places we drove past this afternoon.