"…myth or not, it's in the outback where you really find Australia…" Lonely Planet, Australia (1996)

Western Australia is a massive state (some ten times the size of the UK), largely untouristed, with a huge diversity of incredible and distinctive landscapes. 80% of the population live in and around Perth, which is claimed to be the sunniest state capital and most isolated capital city in the world. I stayed with an ex-work colleague who has emigrated out there. Since my arrival we'd been in the pool several times, in the sauna, on the beach and down to the Aquarium of Western Australia - 12,000 kms of amazing Western Australian coastline in a short walk... with sea dragons, stingrays, sharks, seals, turtles, marine fish, jellyfish, cuttlefish, soft and hard coral etc etc. Fantastic! We'd had a few cold beers too (naturally). Temperatures were in the high 30's and there was a hot dry breeze. Perth was excellent fun! It was nice to relax, swim in the pool and walk on the beach but I also went into Perth City itself.

From there I travelled north via The (haunting and eerie) Pinnacles Desert (large sandstone structures protruding from the ground), Kalbarri - renowned for its stunning gorges and amazing rugged, red-cliffed coastline (I did two 25m abseils in the Z-Bend in Kalbarri National Park) and Monkey Mia / Shark Bay World Heritage Site - famous for its dolphin-human interaction, where dolphins swim into knee-deep water, Shell Beach (countless tiny white shells lying several metres deep) and the Hamelin Pool Stomatolites - rare living prehistoric marine life forms. My destination was about 1200km north of Perth and just north of the Tropic of Capricorn at the Coral Coast and North West Cape. Running down the west coast of the Cape on land is the 510-sq km Cape Range National Park renowned for its tranquil snorkelling beaches, gorges & rugged ranges. Running alongside it in the ocean is the miniature & discontinuous version of the Great Barrier Reef. Less commercialised and more accessible, the lagoons enclosed by the stunning Ningaloo Reef house dugongs, turtles, sharks, whales, manta rays & hundreds of species of tropical fish!

-> Part Two

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