June 14, 2021May 14, 2022

Shark Bay Scenic Flight

This post is part of our Western Australia road trip. In case you don’t want to read this sequentially, or you are looking for another part of the trip, here are some shortcuts:

Lake Ballard
Exmouth and Coral Bay
Shark Bay and Monkey Mia
- Dirk Hartog Island
- Shark Bay Scenic Flight <– You are here
Kalbarri
- Hutt Lagoon Scenic Flight
Jurien Bay

You know that sinking feeling when you realise that you just fell in love with something that is going to cost you a lot of money? I’ve felt this twice before.

The first time was in Port Lincoln (2015) when a sea lion swam right up to my FauxPro (that’s what I called the Chinese actioncam that I bought on eBay). I could feel the sea lion’s whiskers on my hands as I gripped the yellow floating handle, and I remember thinking how much I loved being in the water with marine mammals and that this was going to be the best_footage_EVER. I was absolutely gutted that night when I found this flattering image instead of a sea lion closeup.

I hadn’t started filming, so when I clicked the shutter to stop filming after the magical encounter, I actually started filming. It was at this moment that I knew I wanted a proper camera housing, and that it was going to be expensive.

Fast forward a year and we’re at Rye Pier learning how to use our new Nauticam housing with the Sony A7RII. This is the underwater hand signal for “give me the camera”. This is also the moment when I knew one camera for two photographers was not going to cut it.

Which brings us to an airstrip in the Gascoyne and the moment where we fell in love with aerial photography.

We chartered a Cessna 206 for an hour-long scenic flight with Shark Bay Aviation. We were strapped in with harnesses because the right rear door had been removed for easier photography. Warm hats and jackets were key.

From Shark Bay Airport (IATA: MJK, ICAO: YSHK) we flew across Freycinet Reach to the salt ponds of Useless Loop, and then up to Francois Peron National park to see the colours of Big Lagoon.

We shot over 1200 images and it took a long time to narrow them down to something manageable for this page.

Useless Loop

French explorer Henri-Louis de Saulces de Freycinet named the area “Havre Inutile” (“Useless Harbour”), because he believed the area to be entirely blocked by a sandbar. The saltfields were built in the 1960’s and produce the purest grade salt in the world. The sea water here 50% saltier than the open sea and the 37 crystalliser ponds of various shapes and sizes use the movement of the tides as evaporators. Access is restricted to people who work in the salt mine.

Francois Peron National Park is named after a French naturalist/explorer/zoologist aboard scientific expeditions to Western Australia in the early 1800’s. A pearling camp was established in the area in the late 1800’s, and it was later used as a sheep station until it was sold to the government in 1990. You need a 4WD to travel further than the homestead located near the entrance.