Monkey Mia, Perth

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Every morning (with a few days' exception), wild dolphins swim up to the beach and stay for about 30-40 minutes. During this time, one of the staff members from the resort gives a talk with information about the dolphins, then they pick out members of the public to feed the dolphins. The dolphins are fed up to 3 times a day, up to 1pm. On each occasion, only 4 dolphins are fed, and the amount that are fed to them is very small, like a snack, to encourage them to continue to hunt for food in the wild by themselves. As the dolphins are wild, you are not allowed to touch them. Even when you're feeding the dolphins, you're only holding the fish to it's mouth, so you don't get any contact with it.

The actual times that the dolphins swim up is not fixed, but the staff do recommend that you be out on the beach by about 7.30am to catch sight of them.

During the rest of the day, you may find dolphins swimming about in the same areas that you are swimming in. There was one time when we hired a glass-bottom boat (self-driven) to view the fishes, but some dolphins swam up to us, so we cruised beside them. That was such a buzz!

There aren't many facilities on this resort - you'll find a bar that serves food, a cafe and a restaurant, a massage room, a watersports equipment hire shop and a convenience store. The nearest town from this resort is called Denham which is 29km away.

There are several types of accomadation available to suit different budgets. We stayed in a room in the Dolphin Lodge. The room was clean but basic - there was a TV, a fridge, a double bed, and en-suite with walk-in shower. There was no hairdryer.

Moneky Mia is just suich a place to take family and see something really different.

Have you ever wanted to walk into the watre and be so close to a dolphin that you can see them smile at you....Well this is the place.

Not a place for summer unless you like extreme heat, sea and fishing... But in winter its awesome.

Here's a Monkey Mia ranger introducing us to a female dolphin. They have names for the regular visitors but I can't recall this one's. Much of the world's dolphin research is done right here. There's only one place to stay and that's the Monkey Mia resort with a variety of levels of comfort. We opted for the cheapest which was sharing a small trailer with 2 other backpackers. Hmmm, we wish we had stayed in nearby Denham and commuted instead.

Monkey Mia is a stretch of beach located in the Shark Bay World Heritage region, 850 kms north of Perth. For 30 years bottle-nosed dolphins have been coming here to interact with humans. There are daily feedings where tourists can see wild dolphins up close - but no touching!! I was a bit disappointed as hopes of my frolicking in the water with these beautiful creatures were dashed. This was a lovely experience however, and if you are in the area it's worth checking out.