WA Coral Coast - A grand adventure in our own backyard
Most people heard about the great ‘lockdown’ of Western Australia, with the state clamping down its borders for almost 2 years during the COVID pandemic. A decision that not only saved lives and gave WA people additional freedoms through that time, but created a surge of local tourism as everyone scrambled to replace their Bali holidays with closer options.
One of the areas that benefited hugely from this boom was the Coral Coast, a stretch of coastline from Cervantes (2hrs north of Perth) to Exmouth, filled with marine life and picture perfect beaches. Like many WA folks we’d never driven more than a few hours north (and flights had been crazy expensive pre-COVID), but the promise of swimming with whale sharks, manta-rays and turtles was too much to pass up!
So with a bit of planning, we landed on a Drive + Fly itinerary (modelled of this one at https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/plan-your-visit/itineraries/perth-to-exmouth), which had us cruising north in a rental car and stopping regularly and then flying home on a Exmouth>Perth flight. If you’re like us and the thought of driving 5+ hrs each day doesn’t appeal, then this is a great compromise assuming you can find a good rental deal (or friends that you can trade-off with if you both meet in the middle to swap the car!).
We did our trip in May, which gave us perfect weather while being in whaleshark season. Exmouth and Coral Bay have marine life attractions all year round (humpback whales, hatching turtles, and more), but I can’t imagine the experiences get more ‘bucket list’ than swimming with the whalesharks!
When to go?
We did our trip in May, which gave us perfect weather while being in whaleshark season. Exmouth and Coral Bay have marine life attractions all year round (humpback whales, hatching turtles, and more), but I can’t imagine the experiences get more ‘bucket list’ than swimming with the whalesharks!
If you’re not used to the WA sun then do bring a bucketload of sunscreen though – you can fry after even a few mins, and with so many swim stops along the way we were constantly lathering up.
Our highlights
There’s no doubt that the star attractions for the Coral Coast are under the water, and you can find:
- Whalesharks at Exmouth
- Turtles at Cape Range coastline (and few other places if you’re lucky)
- Coral Reefs at Coral Bay
- Dolphins at Monkey Mia
- Sealions at Jurien Bay
One of favourite memories had nothing to do with whalesharks or turtles though. We had unexpected company while snorkeling through Coral Bay, when a tiny Angel fish decided to play ‘tour guide’ and accompany us through a swim (weaving in and out of our legs). Who knew the locals could be so friendly!
Some of the other surprises that we found on our trip included:
- Hiking to incredible views across the Cape Range national park
- This area gets intense heat across much of the year, but is so worth venturing into areas like Charles Knife Canyon and Yardie Creek for their views
- Cactus gardens and tropical fruits in Carnarvon
- Amazing dining and fresh seafood throughout
- We stayed at the RAC Resort at Monkey Mia and Coral Bay, and Mantarays Resort in Exmouth, and all of them had great food on offer
- An outback visit at Bullara Station
- Bullara is a cattle station near Exmouth welcoming visitors for brief stops or overnight stays. The red dirt here was amazing
Want to see more?
See our full trip highlights here (aerial shots courtesy of a DJI Mini 2 drone that I picked up before the trip):
