Seeing dolphins up close and swimming with them for free
Disadvantages:
Touristy !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Monkey Mia is on the West Coast of Australia situated in Shark Bay, a world heritage listed area, and I might add a very beautiful area of the world!! I got here on the Easyrider backpacker bus on a trip from Perth to Broome (www.easyrider.com.au which cost $615 and took 7 days altogether). However you could get here by local bus from Denham or try www.greyhound.com.au which have buses going all over Australia.
This area is famous for its dolphins which is what I did so all I'm going to review. There is a resort here with a few places you can stay overnight but I didn't visit these.
Basically dolphins come in ALMOST every morning. With a 99.6% attendance rate (much better than some of the people I went to school with!) you would have to be REALLY unlucky to miss them. They are wild dolphins that come into the shore sometimes up to 3 times a day and are fed by rangers and members of the public. On the brochures and travel guides, it says the dolphins usually come in between 8am and 1pm. We arrived at the resort just after 8am (and since I was on a guided tour they are usually pretty good at knowing what will happen etc., and when to get there to give you good customer serive and experience). We only had to wait about 20 minutes before the dolphins came in, 3 at first and then another about 20 minutes later.
I thought this was going to be really touristy and to be fair, it was but it was also really good and I would definitely recommend it! Where else in the world can you see wild dolphins within a couple of metres from you for free?! What happens is, there are rangers who wade into the sea and all the tourists stand at the edge of the sea, up to ankle deep. They won't let you any further in but the dolphins come within a few metres of you anyway so it isn't really a problem. You are not allowed to touch the dolphins, but neither are the rangers as apparently they don't like to be touched even though thtey love the social interaction with humans.
After a while they will pick out a few people from the crowd to feed fish to the dolphins. We were told by our guide that you have more chance of being picked if you wear red or if you are a child, this doesn't work always and you have to be really lucky to be picked but it might be worth a thought! Dress up your cutest kid in red and see how you go!!!
All the time that the dolphins are in, one ranger tells you interesting things about the dolphins like they don't ever sleep like we do because they breathe voluntarily whereas we breathe involuntarily (i.e. don't have to think about it) so half their brain sleeps at once and then the other sleeps - so when you see a dolphin with one eye shut, this means they are literally "half asleep"! Interesting huh?!
All the dolphins have names and can be identified by the shape of their fin. It is very formal and structured but this is essential to the well-being of the dolphins. Years ago, they used to come in to the shore and get fed by the public and tourists and the mother dolphins would sit on the shore all day getting fat, leaving their young to fend for themselves and the young were getting eaten by sharks. Because of this the rangers still feed them so they come in, but they will only ever give them a quarter of their daily food intake so they still have to fend for themselves which I think is a brilliant idea. The rangers really do know what they are talking about too so don't be afraid to ask them any questions.
Near the beach there is a gift shop selling all your usual souvenirs of the place - postcards, keyrings, posters, tea-towels etc etc. There is also a restaurant, and a toilet and shower block. The restaurant is quite expensive so if you are on a tight budget, be sure to take your own drinks with you before you get into Monkey Mia.
It is possible to fo swimming in the sea, but they do cordon off where you are allowed to go. All they ask is that you don't willingly go and swim after the dolphins, i.e. chase them, or touch them but if the dolphins come to you then that is fine and you get a swim with a dolphin for free!!
More info is provided on the place and also the overnight resorts which I didn't go to on http://www.monkeymia.com.au.
Definitely worth a visit even if it is touristy!! xx
P.S. I put prices as average below as the restaurant and resort are quite expensive but actually going on the beach and seeing the dolphins is free - bargain!!
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