Day 6 - Mon 25th May

We left Geraldton and headed for Shark Bay… one of those places we have driven past many times as we go to Coral Bay or Exmouth… but never actually stop at.  Our destination: Hamelin Station Stay located at the base of Hamelin Pool.  All I can say is WOW!  We loved the accommodation and would probably choose to stay there in the future when splitting the long drive to Coral Bay into two days.  It’s about 30km off the main highway… not a lot in the scheme of things when traveling in Australia ;)

After setting up camp we checked out the local stromatalites: 

 Apparently the water in Hamelin Pool is 2.5 times saltier than the ocean.  This means not much can survive there other than a special cockle shell.  These shells are tiny - up to 4000 of them in a square metre.  I don’t know what process occurs but they wash up on the beach then get compacted into a rock hard material, which, in the early days, was mined at a quarry and used as bricks for housing and other buildings.