Monkey Mia

Our first stop on the coach tour was at an amazing place called Monky Mia. If you look at a map of Western Australia, follow the coast north of Perth and you'll come to a double peninsula; Monkey Mia is on the inner peninsula. The first photo was taken at sunrise.
It's a very special place where, during the 1960's a lady started feeding bottlenosed dolphins. A wildlife spectacular was born and now the dolphins come into the beach several times a day .

From the several hundred animals that inhabit the Indian ocean in this area, Monkey Mia has 30 or so regular beach visitors, only females and sometimes their young (males are too aggressive so are actively discouraged) with up to a dozen arriving for each feeding session.

You can see how close in they come. The sea is about knee depth and they'll come right up to you looking for food. The whole affair is closely regulated by rangers as dozens of people line the beach to catch a glimpse.

If you're lucky enough - and this was my lucky day - you get picked from the crowd to feed a dolphin a fish! Words cannot describe the experience but I would've come home a happy woman if I didn't see another thing in the whole of the holiday.