Western Australia: Perth, the Coral Coast and Ningaloo Reef

Arrive in Perth

Perth Airport to your hotel in central Perth, then Elizabeth Quay and Kings Park

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Perth
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

Plan to land by about 2 pm to join the afternoon walk; later arrivals still make the welcome dinner. The city spreads along the Swan River, broad as a lake between the towers and Fremantle, on Whadjuk Noongar country; your guide starts the trip with the Noongar story of the river. At about 4 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group and we walk down to Elizabeth Quay on the riverfront, then drive up to Kings Park, bushland, lawns and a botanic garden on Mount Eliza above the city. From the terrace by the State War Memorial the river and the towers lie below you, and the light is best in the hour before sunset. Your guide runs through the days ahead: the long coastal drives and how we break them, what to pack for the reef and how the snorkelling works. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner in the city.

Compris

• Pick-up at Perth Airport (PER)
• Welcome walk to Elizabeth Quay with your guide
• Kings Park and the State War Memorial lookout before sunset
• Welcome dinner

Rottnest Island and the quokkas

Perth to Fremantle, the ferry to Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) and back

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Perth
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive about 30 minutes to Fremantle and take the ferry across to Rottnest Island, about half an hour on the water. Private cars are not allowed on the island, so the group gets around by bike or on the island's hop-on bus. Quokkas, small wallabies that live here in large numbers, doze under the trees around Thomson Bay and along the paths: photograph them, but do not touch or feed them. Your guide takes the group out to the West End, to Cathedral Rocks, where fur seals haul out on the reef, and Cape Vlamingh at the tip.

Après-midi

Lunch is your choice from the cafés and bakery at Thomson Bay. In the afternoon swim or snorkel at The Basin or Little Salmon Bay, where reef fish move over rock and weed in clear, shallow water a few strokes from the sand. The Noongar name for the island is Wadjemup, and for almost a century it held a prison for Aboriginal men and boys; your guide tells that history at the Quod.

Soir

We take a late-afternoon ferry back, and the evening is yours in Perth or Fremantle.

Compris

• Return ferry from Fremantle to Rottnest Island, with the island admission fee
• Bike hire or a hop-on bus pass on the island
• The West End with your guide: Cathedral Rocks and Cape Vlamingh
• Snorkel gear for The Basin or Little Salmon Bay
• The Quod and the island's Aboriginal history with your guide

North to the Pinnacles in the late light

Perth to Yanchep National Park, Indian Ocean Drive to Cervantes, then the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cervantes
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Cervantes, a small crayfishing town where Western rock lobster is the local catch. Just outside town, a short boardwalk at Lake Thetis crosses salty shallows lined with living stromatolites, rocky mounds built up by microbes over thousands of years. We check in and rest through the warm part of the afternoon. At about 4:30 pm we drive 20 minutes into Nambung National Park for the Pinnacles: thousands of limestone pillars, some taller than a person, standing in yellow sand. The Perth day tours have gone by now.

Soir

Walk among them with your guide, who explains how they formed, as the shadows lengthen; where the park allows it, we stay for sunset, and we confirm the access hours at booking. About three hours of driving today.

Compris

• Yanchep National Park and its koala boardwalk
• Sit-down lunch in Cervantes
• The Lake Thetis stromatolites boardwalk
• The Pinnacles in Nambung National Park, in the late afternoon, staying for sunset where the park allows it, with park entry

Geraldton, the pink lake and the Kalbarri cliffs

Cervantes to Dongara and Geraldton, Hutt Lagoon at Port Gregory, then the coastal cliffs into Kalbarri

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Kalbarri
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Soir

We leave at 8 am for the day that gets us properly up the coast: about 410 km and four and a half hours of driving, a little over our usual cap because this is the only road north, and we chose two nights in Kalbarri over a night in Geraldton. No stretch runs much past an hour and three-quarters. Coffee is in Dongara, then on to Geraldton, where the HMAS Sydney II Memorial stands on the hill above town: a dome of 645 metal gulls, one for each sailor lost when the cruiser sank off this coast in November 1941. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Geraldton. In the afternoon we turn off at Port Gregory for Hutt Lagoon, a salt lake coloured by algae in the water, from bubblegum to a pale rose, deepest in strong sun. The last stretch follows the clifftops of Kalbarri National Park, with short walks to Natural Bridge and Island Rock as the light warms, and we reach Kalbarri, at the mouth of the Murchison River, around 5 pm.

Compris

• The HMAS Sydney II Memorial in Geraldton with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Geraldton
• Hutt Lagoon at Port Gregory
• Natural Bridge and Island Rock on the Kalbarri coast

Kalbarri National Park: the Skywalk and the gorge

Kalbarri to the Skywalk, Nature's Window and Z Bend, then Red Bluff for sunset

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Kalbarri
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We are on the road at 7 am, because Kalbarri's gorge country gets hot by late morning and rangers close the longer trails on very hot days. The Murchison River has cut a deep, winding gorge through banded red and white sandstone here. First the Kalbarri Skywalk, two platforms that reach out over the gorge about 100 m above the river, with the bends running away below you. Then Nature's Window, a wind-carved arch in the sandstone that frames the river; it is about 1 km return over uneven rock. Z Bend lookout follows, at the edge of a sharp turn in the gorge.

Après-midi

We are back in town for a sit-down lunch by noon, and the afternoon is free: swim, read by the river mouth, or book a river cruise or a scenic flight over the gorges and coast.

Soir

In the late afternoon your guide drives the group a few minutes south to Red Bluff for sunset over the Indian Ocean; from about June, look out for humpback whales passing offshore. From about July, wildflowers line the roadsides.

Compris

• Kalbarri National Park entry
• The Kalbarri Skywalk with your guide
• Nature's Window and Z Bend lookout
• Sit-down lunch in Kalbarri
• Sunset at Red Bluff

Activités en option

• Murchison River cruise or kayak hire, priced at booking
• Scenic flight over the gorges and coast, priced at booking

Into Shark Bay: stromatolites, Shell Beach and Monkey Mia

Kalbarri to the Overlander Roadhouse, Hamelin Pool, Shell Beach, Eagle Bluff and Denham, then Monkey Mia

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Monkey Mia
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Soir

We leave at 8 am for Shark Bay, a World Heritage Area since 1991: about 400 km and four and a half hours of driving, just over our usual cap because there is no town between Kalbarri and the bay to stop for the night. The first stretch, about two and a half hours, ends with coffee at the Overlander Roadhouse. From there the stops come every half hour or so. At Hamelin Pool a boardwalk crosses the shallows over stromatolites, mounds built by microbes in water about twice as salty as the open sea, one of the oldest forms of life on Earth. Shell Beach is not sand but tiny white cockle shells, piled metres deep. From the boardwalk at Eagle Bluff you look down into clear, shallow water where rays, sharks and sometimes turtles move over the seagrass. Lunch is a late sit-down meal in Denham, at about 1:15 pm, Australia's westernmost town. We reach Monkey Mia mid-afternoon, with time on the beach before dinner together, and the dolphins to look forward to in the morning.

Compris

• The Hamelin Pool stromatolites boardwalk
• Shell Beach
• Eagle Bluff boardwalk
• Sit-down lunch in Denham
• Monkey Mia Reserve entry
• Dinner together at Monkey Mia

Dolphins in the morning, then north to Coral Bay

Monkey Mia to the Overlander Roadhouse and Carnarvon, then Minilya and Coral Bay

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Coral Bay
• Environ 6.5 h de route

Matin

Wild bottlenose dolphins have come into the shallows at Monkey Mia for decades, and rangers run the morning sessions on the beach from about 7:45 am. We stand knee-deep in the water while they swim in; they are wild, so most mornings they come and some mornings they do not. Then the long day, about 590 km and six and a half hours of driving, the one day on this trip well over our cap.

Soir

There is no place between Shark Bay and Ningaloo worth a night, and stopping in Carnarvon would cost a night in Coral Bay. We break it into three legs. We leave at 8:45 am, stop at the Overlander Roadhouse about 10:30, and reach Carnarvon, a river town of banana and vegetable farms, about 1 pm for a sit-down lunch. When it is open, we visit Gwoonwardu Mia, the Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre, before leaving about 2:15. North of town we cross the Tropic of Capricorn, stop at the Minilya Roadhouse and reach Coral Bay about 5 pm, in daylight.

Compris

• The morning dolphin session at Monkey Mia with the rangers
• Sit-down lunch in Carnarvon
• Gwoonwardu Mia, the Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre, on the days it opens

Ningaloo Reef from Coral Bay

A morning on the reef by boat, then a free afternoon in Coral Bay

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Coral Bay
• En bateau

Matin

This morning, while the water is usually calmest, we go out on a half-day reef trip with a local operator. The boat has a glass-bottom viewing area for anyone who would rather stay dry, and the crew stop at two snorkel sites on the reef, where turtles feed and reef fish crowd the coral. Snorkel gear is provided and the crew watch from the boat. Manta rays are seen on some trips; nothing is promised.

Après-midi

Back on shore, lunch is a sit-down meal in town. The afternoon is free, and there is plenty to do on foot: snorkel off the beach in Bills Bay, walk the dunes, or nap. If you booked the whale shark swim, from about March to July, today is that day: a full-day boat trip from Coral Bay instead of the reef trip, priced when you book.

Compris

• Half-day reef trip with glass-bottom viewing and two snorkel stops on Ningaloo Reef
• Snorkel gear
• Sit-down lunch in Coral Bay

Activités en option

• Swim with whale sharks, about March to July, a full-day trip in place of the reef trip, priced at booking
• Manta ray snorkel tour, priced at booking
• Humpback whale-watching cruise, about June to October, priced at booking

Exmouth and Cape Range National Park

Coral Bay to Exmouth, around the cape to Turquoise Bay, Oyster Stacks and Yardie Creek, then Vlamingh Head

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Exmouth
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

We leave Coral Bay at 8:15 am, a little earlier than usual so we reach Turquoise Bay before the afternoon sea breeze, and drive about an hour and three-quarters north to Exmouth for coffee, then round the tip of the cape into Cape Range National Park, where red limestone ridges run down to the reef. Turquoise Bay comes first: your guide checks the current and, if it is safe, we drift snorkel, walking up the beach, floating back over the coral and climbing out before the gap. If the tide is high enough, we snorkel the Oyster Stacks too, rocky outcrops where fish crowd close to shore. There are no cafés in the park, so your guide sets out lunch in the shade at a day-use area. In the afternoon we walk the Yardie Creek trail along the rim of the gorge, about 2 km return, watching for black-footed rock-wallabies on the cliffs.

Soir

On the way back to Exmouth we stop at Vlamingh Head Lighthouse for sunset over the ocean, then the farewell dinner in town. About four hours of driving in all, in stages.

Compris

• Cape Range National Park entry
• Turquoise Bay drift snorkel with your guide, conditions permitting
• Oyster Stacks snorkel at high tide
• Lunch set out in the park
• Yardie Creek gorge walk
• Sunset at Vlamingh Head Lighthouse
• Farewell dinner in Exmouth

Charles Knife Canyon and the flight to Perth

Exmouth to Charles Knife Canyon, then Learmonth Airport and the flight to Perth

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

After an early breakfast we drive south out of Exmouth and up Charles Knife Road, which climbs steeply onto the Cape Range. From the lookouts at the top you see straight down into deep limestone canyons, red and ochre in the morning sun, and out across the flat blue water of Exmouth Gulf. There is a short walk along the rim for the views, and your guide talks about the range and its fossils, the bones of an old seabed lifted into hills. Back down on the coast road, it is about half an hour to Learmonth Airport (LEA), about 35 km south of Exmouth. Your guide checks the group in for the scheduled flight to Perth, about two hours, which is included in the price; the exact time depends on the airline's schedule and comes with your final itinerary. The trip ends at Perth Airport.

Soir

Book an onward flight leaving Perth no earlier than the evening, or stay a night in Perth; we can book the hotel for you.

Compris

• Charles Knife Canyon lookouts with your guide
• Transfer to Learmonth Airport (LEA)
• Scheduled flight from Learmonth to Perth, with checked bag