Around 280km north of Kalbarri, we arrive at Hamelin Station which is the gateway to the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Now owned and operated by Bush Heritage Australia, Hamelin Station covers an area of over 200,000 ha and extends the heritage protection area of Shark Bay by more than 10%. It also includes the area of Hamelin Pool which is only one of two places on earth where living stromatolites are known to occur. The Station has heaps of spots for camping and seems to be a popular place for people to set up camp and explore the area. For us, it was the perfect spot to park up the van and set off with our swags for our Dirk Hartog Island adventure!

Looking at the map, it should be fairly straightforward to get to Dirk Hartog but the logistics certainly take some planning. Approximately three and a half hours after leaving Hamelin Station, and a whole lot of bumpy corrugated gravel road later, we find ourselves at Steep Point, the most westerly point in mainland Australia. Apparently Steep Point is also the best fishing spot in Australia… who knew?! The barge for the island only leaves in the morning so we planned an overnight camp at Steep Point so we would be in plenty of time for our 9am barge the next day.

Lucky for us, the wind came up in the afternoon and we even managed a cheeky kite before sunset whilst the kids practiced their snorkelling.

Friday morning was filled with great excitement as we sat on the beach and watched the early campers depart on the barge which starts running at 7am. Swags packed away and car re-packed, it was finally our turn for the short 15 minute transfer across to DHI!

From top to bottom, the island is only around 85km long but it takes approximately four hours to cover this distance. After realising that our initial planned camp of Dampiers Landing on the northern tip of the island may have been a little ambitious, we set off for Sandy Point approximately two thirds of the way up the island.

The drive across the island takes you through so many different types of terrain. At some points, you feel like you are on a never ending corrugated tracks…

The next minute you find yourself on amazing sand dunes and feel like you are in the middle of a desert…

And at some points it even feels like you are on the moon!

Around three hours after we arrived on the island, we set up our first camp at Sandy Point and had the beach all to ourselves.

Snorkelling and fishing were activities for the day time but the evening was reserved for chasing mice away from the car and star gazing!

After a night of free camping at Sandy Point, we set off back towards the southern end of the island and to the Homestead for a few nights.

Dirk Hartog Island was taken over by National Parks in 2009. Prior to that, it was a major sheep station with as many as 20,000 sheep on the island at one stage. Combined with feral cats, intense grazing efforts pretty much removed large portions of vegetation and wiped out most of the small mammal population from the island. In 2008, major de-stocking efforts began, removing goats, sheep and feral cats from the island. Since this time, National Parks have created a program to return the island back to its native vegetation and are gradually re-introducing small mammals back into the wild.

Well known for its fishing, the waters off Dirk Hartog are equally well known for snorkelling and the marine life you can find. We all had lots of fun exploring the bays and shallow warm water and once Kiera worked out that she could breathe and talk though her snorkel at the same time, that was it… she was off! It was fun to hear her squeal with delight through her snorkel and figure she had seen something HUGE… only to realise she had found a tiny blue fish amongst the coral.

Shark spotting’s, turtles and dozens of rays, the snorkelling did not disappoint.

I think our favourite snorkel may have been a random find when we parked on a headland and looked down to beautiful blue water to see two huge schools of eagle rays swimming below us. Realising that the headland was just grass, we clambered down with snorkels and went to check it out… and were treated to not just eagle rays but sharks too… amazing!

Camping at the homestead was fun, with other campers around to hear about their adventures and recommendations for the next day of fun and games. Whilst there are no actual facilities on the island, and you have to take all food and drink with you, there is the island bar which opens at 5pm each day in time for sundown… perfect way to spend sunset on Mother’s Day!

Sleeping in the swags (mice and all) was an adventure and even the flies and mozzies didn’t dampen the experience… after all, there is always a price to paradise!

There is no doubt that Dirk Hartog has shot to the top of our list of incredible places to see on our adventures so far. Hopefully one day we will be back… but for now we need to go and find some food (after we extended our stay an extra day) and somewhere to wash the car!