Mandurah Dolphin Spotting

A little day trip from Perth down to Mandurah, roughly 60 minutes by car or you can now take the train all the way down. Anyway, the purpose of this particular trip was to take a little dolphin spotting cruise. On these Mandurah Cruise boats you are trolling around the Mandurah Estuary... Supposedly to sight see and to have some landmarks pointed out... But mostly, people do it to try and catch a glimpse of the dolphins that hang around in the area.

So, leaving the Wharf behind, or little your group set off in search of dolphins!

Honestly, even if there weren't any dolphins to be seen, the water is just such a beautiful colour and so crisp and clear. Quite an idyllic place to live...

Our first sweep took us near the marina...

... With lots of little luxury apartments built up onto the water. It is hard to believe that not so long ago, this was farmland!

And here, the large local marina, sheltered around the corner away from the tourist area, but also near the two passageways to the ocean.

And here we had our first of many dolphin sightings! In the end, over the 90 minute tour we had 5 dolphins playing around the boat. But they were quite difficult to take photos of, so after a while I gave up and just watched!

They would even come right up to the host and surf the water that the boat was pushing!

Bah ... Pirates!

Anyway, when my parents first moved to WA and when I was growing up, 5 this area was undeveloped farmland... And it had since been developed into a pretty enviable holiday town for Perth's upper crust.

Last sale... About 5 million...

Apparently, this enclosed but open to the Estuary swimming area is a favourite of the dolphins.. Who sneak in and scare the families that are swimming in there!