The Coral Coast – Perth to Exmouth

For those of us on the east coast, Western Australia’s capital Perth seems like a long way from everything – indeed, it’s the world’s most remote capital city – and that might deter some adventurers from making the hike.

But if you can make the journey, the isolation is actually part of the charm, and this part of the world offers some unique experiences unmatched by the rest of the country and the world, for that matter.

We’ll come back for a road trip south another time because the verdant bottom corner of the state has its own unique story to tell, but for this adventure, we headed north out of the capital into a land that became more otherworldly with each passing kilometre.

You don’t have to go far for the fun to start with an activity that blends snowboarding with the beach. A little over 100km from Perth’s centre, Lancelin is home to a sprawling dune plateau that is wonderful to behold, but if you feel more adventurous, a very affordable fee will rent you a sandboard.

It’s not as difficult or dangerous as it sounds, but take our advice and resist the temptation to sit down toboggan-style, and stand up for the most exhilarating feeling.

Pushing on further north, you’ll find the Pinnacles Desert Park – a curious natural wonder that was formed not by people but by the action of acid rain and nearby coastal life. It’s well worth a stop, but don’t stay too long as you’ll want time for Hutt Lagoon too.

It’s another 400km up the coast, but we got in just in time for sunset and an opportunity to see this weird natural anomaly. Otherwise known as Pink Lake, this vast body of water is cut off from the nearby sea, but has a salinity 10 times higher and that allows an abundance of beta-carotene-producing algae. The result is an almost fluorescent lagoon that is a treat for the eyes regardless of the weather.

Speaking of which – the climate along the Coral Coast is usually very pleasant in June, but for our arrival in Kalbarri, the heavens opened and dumped 85mm of the wet stuff on us in 24 hours. This could have been a disaster, but there was a silver lining to this huge, very full cloud.

On any normal day in peak season, Kalbarri National Park is teeming with visitors, mostly concentrated around the two biggest drawcards – the Skywalk and Nature’s Window. However, with such a foul day keeping all but the bravest (read: foolish) away, we had the entire place to ourselves.

Thankfully, the weather was a 24-hour event and the next day brought a perfectly timed change. While the deluge couldn’t dampen our spirits in the national park, it would have been harder to ignore the elements for this next part.

Kalbarri Wagoe Beach Quad Bike and Buggy Tours will furnish you with a choice of quad bike or side-by-side 4x4 buggy to go and explore the incredible coastline, tackling soaring dunes high above the sea as well as deserted beaches right down to the breaking surf. It’s an incredibly liberating experience and so much better with the sun shining.

The tour gets you so close to the water you can taste the salt, and that might prompt you to go in search of more aquatic interactions. If that’s the case, plot a course for Francois Peron National Park and don’t stop until you come to Monkey Mia.

Not only will you find a lovely oasis of accommodation miles from anywhere, but you’ll also be treated to a wildlife interaction unrivalled by anything else in the world.

Here, humans have been meeting dolphins every morning for hundreds of years, but perhaps even more surprising than how tame the wild mammals are is why they actually come. No-one really knows.

The peninsula is rich in curiosities including the amusing but also slightly strange Thong Shack – a makeshift shelter adorned with hundreds of pairs of the footwear – as well as the Min Min Light, a truly intriguing phenomenon that has been mystifying and frightening travellers on these remote roads for centuries. We didn’t encounter either this time, but that didn’t stop us going in search of an answer.

A week into this tour and the furthest we’d ventured into the sea was ankle-deep to meet a dolphin or two, but all that was about to change because Ningaloo Reef is WA’s best-kept secret (for no particular reason).

While Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef claims line honours as the most famous in the country – if not the planet – Ningaloo is its quiet-achieving cousin. Unlike the Great Barrier, however, accessing this incredible natural treasure requires nothing more than a snorkel, mask and a drive to Five Fingers Beach.

From here, the reef begins straight off the white sands, offering abundant sea life including turtles, reef sharks, jellies and vivid fish just metres from the beach.

But for a more immersive and intense experience, there are numerous companies that will take you out further to see more. From late June, the deep waters beyond the reef are feeding grounds and migration routes for enigmatic whale sharks and graceful humpback whales. You may even get a chance to swim with a manta ray.

For a bit of balance and a contrast to the marine world, we spent a night at Bullara Station – a working cattle station where the former shearers’ sheds have been transformed into plush accommodation and a restaurant where chef Toby lays on fine dining five nights a week using incredible local and seasonal produce.

A week would have probably been just adequate to do everything the station offers, from 4x4 tours, walking trails and stargazing to, of course, two viral must-do experiences – the outdoor showers and scones (not at the same time) – but the end of our trip loomed and we couldn’t wait.

Our final push north leads to another peninsula – Cape Range National Park – which packs a lot into a relatively small point of land about 1000km from Perth.

From the series of gorges that cleave into the rock from the sea, offering more flora and fauna delights, to the simply unbelievable beaches, it’s a complete spectacle. One such stretch of sand is so intensely pretty it was once voted the number-one beach in the whole of the Southern Hemisphere, and its name should be all you need to encourage a visit – Turquoise Bay.

But while this trip has been punctuated almost entirely by natural beauty, there’s a spectacle on the furthest northern tip of the peninsula that was put there not by the action of tides or geology, but by humans.

The Harold E Holt Communications Station is an engineering marvel, occupying 400 hectares with a series of 13 towers, the tallest of which stands in the middle at nearly 400 metres high. It’s humbling and awe-inspiring to behold.

After all that excitement, Exmouth – the town that was created to service the communications station – is our final base for the night. It’s a sleepy town, but one that is full of friendly locals, excellent places to eat and a very, very good brewery.

It’s the perfect place to sip a Whale Bone Moby IIPA and ponder the trip. We’re a long way north of the capital, a long way from anywhere, actually, in a cosy seaside town tucked away on a desert cape, encircled by the most cyan waters we’ve ever seen.

It feels like the rest of the world doesn’t exist and, if that were really true, we wouldn’t mind one bit.

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