Wildlife Coast |

Day 1 - Leave Perth and head north to Kalbarri as you commence your coastal adventure. Enjoy a tasty lunch en route before arriving in Kalbarri by mid afternoon. Take in the breathtaking scenery of the coastal cliffs.

Check in to your resort style accommodation and enjoy an evening under the stars at one of the many dining experiences on offer.

Day 2 - Spend the day exploring the river gorges of the Kalbarri National Park. Try one of the canoe and hiking tours for incredible scenery and in season wildflowers. There are also tours to the nearby sand dunes for sand boarding.

Return to Kalbarri township in time for a sunset horse ride along the foreshore of the Murchison River. Tonight dine at one of the local cafes or restaurants.

Day 3 - Continue the journey north to the Shark Bay area – one of only a handful of regions in the world to meet all four criteria for World Heritage listing and the only World Heritage Area in Western Australia. It is home to many rare plants, mammals and bird as well as colourful marine life such as the humpback whale, dugong, manta ray, turtle and dolphin.

Stop at Shell Beach where countless tiny white shells of the burrowing Bivalve have formed a beautiful white shell beach which stretch for miles - some deposits are as much as ten metres deep.

Arrive at Monkey Mia, an area world renowned for its visiting dolphins which interact with people. Enjoy a sunset cruise along the waterfront. Keep an eye out for manta rays and dugongs!

Day 4 - Rise early for your dolphin experience. Almost every day as many as seven bottlenose dolphins visit the shore up to three times a day. These dolphins are known to the researchers and officers from the Department of Conservation and Land Management who have named four of them - Nicky, Surprise, Puck and Piccolo. It’s believes that up to 20 other dolphins occasionally visit the beach.

Spend the afternoon visiting the research and interpretive facility, or take a local wildlife tour to Peron Peninsula. Tours travel though rolling red sand dunes, dense acacia shrub land, along spectacular cliffs and among mangrove trees. Some tours include Ocean Park where, standing on an island in the middle of a manmade lagoon, you are surrounded by sharks, huge fish and manta rays.

Day 5 - Depart Monkey Mia for the pristine marine life at Coral Bay.
En route visit the Stromatolites, the oldest largest display of living fossils anywhere in the world. Scientists from as far as Israel, Poland and Russia have been here to study them and compared the find to that of a zoologist discovering a living dinosaur.

Arrive in Coral Bay by late afternoon and check in to your accommodation. There is a range of accommodation options available including a caravan park, backpacker hostels, self catering apartments and resort style properties.

Day 6 - Spend the day snorkelling on Ningaloo Reef, which lies between Exmouth and Coral Bay. The Ningaloo Marine Park is one of the largest fringing coral reefs in the world covering 5,000 square kilometres and rivalling the Great Barrier Reef for fish and coral species.

The calm sandy beaches of Coral Bay are perfect for swimming, while just 20 metres from shore lies the reef and a large variety of colourful tropical fish. Snorkelling equipment is available for hire from nearby dive shops, or there area glass bottom boats operating daily tours. Snorkelling and scuba diving cruises to the outer reef are also available.

If you are visiting between mid March and mid June, enjoy the once in a lifetime experience of swimming with whale sharks. Each year, the area attracts whale sharks on their migration south. At more than 12-metres in length and weighing more than 11 tonnes the whale shark is the world’s largest fish. Ningaloo is the only place in the world where whale sharks are known to appear regularly and in large numbers near-shore.

Day 7 - Depart Coral Bay for the journey south and head towards the Batavia Coast.
The Batavia Coast offers a choice of great locations and facilities for traditional and relaxing ocean-side holidays with attractions like fishing, reef diving, surfing, wind surfing, yachting and unspoiled beaches. If you are travelling during wildflower season (July to November) expect to see some colourful displays on roadside verges. At Northampton, detour via the Chapman Valley Tourist Drive, one of the most scenic areas in the Mid West region. Stop at Chapman Valley Winery, Western Australia’s most northern winery. Arrive in the city of Geraldton, the bustling hub of the Mid West. There are plenty of accommodation options to suit all budgets and requirements.

Day 8 - Spend the morning enjoying some of the local sights, including the war memorial and lobster factory. Geraldton is one of the major lobster fishing areas of Western Australia.

Depart Geraldton for the Nambung National Park and the mysterious Pinnacles. The National Park features beautiful beaches, coastal dune systems, shady groves and Tuart trees and low heathland rich in flowering plants.

At the Pinnacles, limestone spires up to five metres high rise from the sand. Erosion has exposed this natural phenomenon, which in the early morning or afternoon light creates an eerie moonscape scene.

Continue the journey to Perth.