Wonders Of The Pilbara And West Coast (13 Days) (Including C

Almost two weeks of adventures lie before you, the first a tour of Perth. The Western Australian capital almost steals the street-art trophy from Melbourne, the city’s alleys and warehouses decorated with eye-popping murals and installations from local creatives. It’s also remarkably green, with 400-hectare Kings Park and Botanic Garden sitting pretty in the CBD, on a lazy bend of the serpentine Swan River. Two thirds of the grounds are reserved for native plants, but there are also seasonal wildflowers, all enveloping the Anzac Memorial. If you don’t know your fellow travellers by now, you will by the time your welcome dinner is over.

Two wilderness highs provide a fitting start to this journey of contrasts. Venturing north, you soon reach Yanchep National Park. Here, Noongar man Derek Nannup’s Dreamtime stories tell the tale of how the land was created from an Aboriginal perspective. He’s quite the character and likes his guests to get hands-on. Think tasting native bush tucker, smelling medicinal plants, and maybe even trying to play the didgeridoo. Derek will make it look easy. It’s not… Think the day couldn’t get any better? Think again. Within Nambung National Park, the Pinnacles create a moonscape that appears plucked from a sci-fi film, its staggering collection of natural limestone structures jutting into the sky – some are 3.5 metres high. For all their mysterious appeal, geologists tell us the spires were formed 30,000 years ago when an inland sea receded. It’s a spiritual place. Arriving in Geraldton, pay homage to sailors lost off the WA coast during WWII at the HMAS Sydney Memorial.

While stromatolites might sound like something belonging in a cave, these ‘living fossils’ grow in the water at Hamelin Pool. Rock-like in appearance, they’re actually alive, and reveal what life might have been like 3.5-billion years ago, when there was no other complex life on Earth. Remarkably, this is the world’s most abundant colony of them. It’s just one of the natural allures of the state’s World Heritage listed Shark Bay, the largest bay in Australia with more than 1,000 kilometers of beaches. Not all of them are sandy – welcome to Shell Beach. Here, the snow-white colour comes from billions of tiny coquina bivalve shells, up to 10 metres deep and stretching for 70 kilometers. And just when you thought the outlook couldn’t get any prettier, you arrive at Monkey Mia.