Monkey Mia

We left Karratha yesterday after a couple of mad days furiously packing. The removalists came Wednesday morning and I spent the remainder of Wednesday cleaning the house. Twelve hours in the car yesterday (with a cat) and we arrived in Monkey Mia. It’s a huge state – we’ve still got six hours of driving before we get to Perth.

I haven’t been for a run in four days. It’s the longest break I’ve had since I started. Strangely enough I don’t feel all that guilty – simply because I have not had the time or ability to go for a run. If I skipped it out of laziness, I’d probably feel differently but I just physically haven’t been able to run. However I am worried about what little fitness I have been able to accumulate. I feel like it’s all just ebbing away – all that hard work. I wanted to run yesterday, and I said to my husband that I was going to go for a run come hell or highwater – but we didn’t arrive in Monkey Mia until 7pm and the restaurant closed at 8pm (can you believe that?? And it doesn’t get dark until 9!) so we decided that eating was our top priority. Then it was too dark – but I did walk on the beach! There was no way I could have run on the sand though, man that’s hard work!!

This morning we got up and went to the obligatory dolphins – it’s the ONLY thing to do here! The dolphins are beautiful and very friendly. There were three mothers with their calves including one calf that was only days old. Very special. They reckon that the dolphins are just as curious about us as we are about them. They roll around in the shallow water having a good look at us. Then they’ll splash the water with their tail and the crowd will go “ooooh” and you can almost see the dolphins laughing at us. After about half an hour they leave. Just like that. They only feed them one fish each these days to encourage the dolphins to hunt their own food. So the only reason they come into shore is really for the interaction. And it appears to be generational. The young will continue to come back to Monkey Mia and bring their young, and their young will bring their young.

Another walk along the beach to get to the interaction area and a walk back to the room has been my only exercise so far today. At least it’s light enough to see what I’m doing. There don’t appear to be any running tracks, but I’ve have a bit more of an explore today. We don’t leave until tomorrow so I’d really like to find somewhere to run this afternoon – or even at midday since the maximum temperature is expected to be only 28!!!!! Bliss!!!!!

The do have pedal boats so we may hire one of those and I’ll see if I can get a sweat up that way. Still no guilt feeling about the running, but that nagging worry about my fitness. I’ve brought Percy thinking he could draw me a pretty picture of Monkey Mia – but I’ve had no opportunity to use him yet. Maybe later.

I have to say that I did not realise that the resort was a backpackers. There are only six “chalets” and they were all booked so we are staying at the “Dolphin Lodge”. Beautiful view of the ocean from our balcony (as I write this!!) but it is backpacker accommodation. Unless you are the sociable touristy kind I would not recommend it. Still, the room is clean and we managed to get a private bathroom but it reminds me of boarding school. Communal everything else – kitchen, laundry, living area. Not really what we had in mind! And at $195 a night, a bit more communal than we were expecting. We were expecting motel units. Ah well – it’s all part of the experience.

Another two or three days until we get to Perth. I will run when I can, and probably post less, but when I arrive in Perth I hope a routine will quickly develop!