CAMPSITE # 121 - Monkey Mia

The 'quick 150km drive' to Monkey Mia was anything but quick. It didn't help that we had a lazy start and only set off at 10am followed by a lovely stroll along Shell Beach. Shell Beach is made up of billions of tiny white 'coquina bivalve' sea shells that are compacted so many metres deep that some buildings in the area are actually constructed by blocks of the compacted shells.

Once we arrived to Monkey Mia and paid the $11 entry fee per vehicle, we set about taking a little stroll around the resort and debated whether or not to stay the night. As we arrived after lunch, we missed the dolphin viewing for the day. Monkey Mia is a destination known predominately for its wild dolphin feeding attraction. Between 8am and 12pm each day, they hand feed up to 5 wild dolphins from the shores of the Monkey Mia Resort in shin deep water.

When we were walking through the camping ground, to have a little look, we recognised a fellow Troopie. Geographically speaking, I don't think we, at Monkey Mia (one of the most westerly points in the country), could have been much further away from the Eastern coast of Tasmania. Remember Campsite # 56 at Swimcart Beach where we made friends with two other Troopies? Jess and Dave were in the 'QueensLandCruiser' and Maria was in 'Norbit likes it rough'. Well, right infront of our very own eyes was good old Norbit. At that point, our decision was made - we were definitely staying.


We spent our afternoon / evening catching up with Maria and shared many tales of our journeys since we last saw each other over four months ago. A lot of kilometres travelled, many campsites covered and some rather interesting encounters to speak of. 

So, we lined up with all of the other dozens of tourists and "ooooh" and "aaaahh'd" at the dolphins at 8 O'Clock the next morning. People travel for thousands of kms to see these beauties up close and personal. A selected few may even be lucky enough to be chosen to hand feed a fish to the dolphins. Back in the day when the program first began, they used to let people sneak a pat in as they were feeding the fish to the mammals but for some reason the dolphins didn't appreciate being poked & prodded by humans and started biting the tourists. Which I think is quite amusing - kudos to Team Dolphin!! You have to wonder about some people. One young girl was chosen to feed the dolphin and was sporting a gigantic smile on her face, all full of excitement and amazement until a middle aged German women pushed the little girl out of her way and announced "Now, I go!!" As you can imagine, that went down REALLY well with the Ranger... and for some reason she wasn't chosen to feed the dolphins. 

Site : Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort
Rating : 6 /20
Facilities : 1min stroll to the bay. Pool & spa, tennis court, bar, good camp kitchen. Bathrooms were very revolting... if they actually are paying someone to clean them they're not getting paid enough.