worzel

Mum and Dad have just announced they are coming out for 3 weeks in October and we are planning to take them north to Shark Bay to see Ningaloo Reef, Monkey Mia, Kalbarri and call in at the Pinnacles on the way as we haven’t been that far ourselves yet. There will be 5 of us in total.

The initial plans are to drive to Kalbarri the first day (6 hours) to break the back of it, spend one night (or two?) in a hotel and have a look round Kalbarri the next day. Get to Shark Bay (another 4 hours) and spend about 4-5 days in a house as a base for the area seeing Ningaloo, Monkey Mia etc. Then drive back as far as Jurien Bay (7 hours) – get hotel rooms and visit the Pinnacles on the way home the next day.

So to anyone who has done this sort of trip do you have any comments on that split of time, suggestions for other things to see or do. We could spend time quietly on the beach but mum and dad can’t sit still. How about accommodation recommendations?

Sam is already stressing – 7 hours in a car with mum and dad two days after they arrive! Hopefully they are jetlagged and sleep all the way there.

northernbird

You won't see all that much of Ningaloo at Shark Bay. Personally (and it is only personally) I don't rate Shark Bay and Monkey Mia at all, not much to see IMO. I would head up to Coral Bay and do a few days there and in Exmouth instead. Extra travel time but worth it.

jonah38

Hi Worzel

Kalbarri, Ningaloo and shark bay are fantastic places to see. Absolutely amazing. Your parents will love it. However, that part of WA is very remote and driving distances between places of interest are huge. Accommodation is not readily available as a turn up and pay situation. It is possible but with elderly parents not ideal to rely on luck!

Kalbarri is a quiet little seaside town with limited facilities but still very nice. Not sure on the accommodation availability in OCT but it was full in July this year.

Monkey Mia is very isolated and a little off the track. It is very nice though, dolphin feeding guaranteed 3 times a day. Best to get there for the first feed in the morning about 7.30am. Loads of pelicans too. Not much in the way of facilities at monkey mia itself though. A small holiday resort and a cafe. Small entrance fee is required for monkey mia. The nearest and only local town is Denham. You will pass through Denham before getting to Monkey Mia. More accommodation possibilities are available here rather than Monkey Mia and Denham is only about 20 mins drive away.

Ningaloo Reef - save the best till last. What a fantastic place. This is also off the beaten track and quite a drive. Ningaloo reef is part of a national park and only accessible by driving through Exmouth. Although there are camp sites within the national park and closer to the reef, Exmouth probably has more of a comfortable range of accommodation.Private houses and hotels etc. To see the length of the Ningaloo national park and the reef you will have to drive about 80km one way every day. We did. Yardi creek is the very last part of it and that is about 80 km from Exmouth. But you have loads of beach sites before you get there i.e Turquoise Bay and Turtle Beach. We snorkeled with reef sharks, turtles and all manner of sea life at lads of beaches here. Absolutely amazing. Probably one of the best places i have ever been too. We could of scuba dived with whale sharks but ran out of time and missed the opportunity of a lifetime as this is one of the only places in the world where you are guaranteed to see one!

Its a long way up there! The distances between towns and garages are huge so make mum and dad comfy, enjoy the views but i would suggest more rest time at each location and pre book your accommodation in advance

Hope that helps

Siren & Brian

Only go to Coral Bay.

I went to Shark Bay and arrived at 6.30 am and by 9am was done and got out of there. Now Coral Bay spent a week and really didnt want to leave.

northernbird

I agree we do Coral Bay every year and adore the place. Shark Bay is where the husband goes with the boys to fish and we wouldn't go there for a family holiday.

vgenburgos

I would say if you are tight on time and want to cut out some of the driving miss out Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, unless you really have to see the dolphins (also staying round Shark Bay isn't really going to be easy to see Ningaloo from there, is a really long way as you have to drive up through Exmouth and then down the other side). Monkey Mia is quite a big detour and if I did our trip again (3 weeks up to Exmouth and Karinjini and back to Perth) I would miss that bit out. Was nice enough seeing the dolphins but loads of people. If you do go to Monkey Mia we did an aboriginal walk from there with a guy called Capes which was really interesting, showed us about tracking animal prints, plants you can eat and all sorts of stuff on a track you would have thought was quite boring without him, was useful information on stuff to look for on the rest of our time in Australia.

Shell Beach which is only a slight detour off Route 1 was very pretty - see picture

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgenbur...n/set-1087816/

Ningaloo Reef was great and we spent about 4 days there, Yardi Creek boat trip was good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgenbur...n/set-1087816/

To me there is an awful lot of driving in there and the long straight roads get very tiring, we did two overnights before Kalbarri (Pinnacles and Geraldton).

koalakim

Hi there

We did the trip earlier this year and this is our take on it!

From Perth did one night in "the" motel in Cervantes to see Pinnacles - sunset is a good time to see them. One night will be sufficient in Cervantes!

From there we took the Ocean Drive up to Geraldton passing through Jurien Bay etc - very nice but it's a long boring road and you don't get to see much ocean! The main road is actually more interesting!

We stopped in Geraldton for a couple of nights for a break can recommend the Intown Apartments (with broadband - woo hoo). Not much to see in Geraldton but useful for stocking up on anything.

Finally made it to Denham after nearly 5 hours of nothing and one roadhouse to stop at! We stayed at the Oceanside Village which are cabins and very nice. Although I have to say this was the bit I was most looking forward to and the most disappointing! Denham really needs a make-over for the number of tourists it gets! Monkey Mia is totally over-rated - go to Bunbury etc to see Dolphins. 20 odd years ago my friend went to MM and has a great photo of her in the water stroking a dolphin - now you aren't allow to even say hello to them, the rangers keep you away from them at all times. So it was a spoilt visit. Plus MM resort is expensive for food etc. There are some nice walks around the bush though and if you do go can recommend a marine park tour on the Shotover boat - the best bit!

The other problem up there is that we couldn't see much of the area because 4WD was needed. The national park is really only for experienced drivers so it means going in a group on a tour which isn't our thing (and expensive) as we are photographers so need to be there at sunsets etc. We tried taking the hire car down one of the tracks and nearly shook the thing to pieces! So really if you haven't got 4X4 then as the others have said head straight for Coral Bay.

We didn't get as far as Coral Bay because the cyclones were still coming in and we thought it was a bit risky.

After Denham (which was about 40 everyday) we headed to Kalbarri which was lovely. Great seaside town with lots to see and do around the area. If you are into walking or canoeing especially - but it can get pretty hot up there! Kalbarri Nat Park was lovely, this time we managed to hire a 4X4 from the local garage which got us into the park - normal cars were going down there but it is a bit dangerous (27kms of sand and ruts!) but worth seeing when you climb up to Natures Window.

From there we had a night in Dongara at the Big 4 park and treated ourselves to a beachside cabin which was nice.

Next time we'll take a 4x4 or now that we've done that bit we'll fly to Exmouth and then tour around from there.

Hope this helps!

Kim

worzel

I think we have a plan formulated at last!

Coral Bay / Ningaloo can wait for another trip when we have time to do it justice.

So I am reckoning on driving up to Shark Bay / Denham day 1. It will take all day to get there and while it is at the end of a 4 hour cul-de-sac (sounds like Barrow in Furness!) we may as well tick it off despite everyone saying it is disappointing.

Then back to Kalbarri and spend 5 nights there. Some places we may have been able to cover by moving on every night will become out of range but I think we will be able to get to most places in a day trip and there seems lots to do.

Finally break the journey back half way at somewhere like Dongara-Denison or Geraldton to allow the bulk of two days to stop off at everywhere along the way like Jurien and the Pinnacles.

Now we just have to see whether we can get accommodation in school holidays. 8 months should be adequate notice I hope.

Has anyone stayed at Kalbarri Beach Resort?

Any recommendations for accommodation in Shark Bay / Denham or Dongara-Denison / Geraldton ?

renth

How long are you going to spend there? There's no point driving all day to get there, staying the night then heading back down to Kalbarri.

when we stayed in In Dongara, in a campervan, we stayed here: http://www.perthsites.com/web/design...enison-dongara

It was pretty good.

I recommend a trip to the crayfish processing plant if you are going up during the season.

worzel

Just the one night. The alternative is to have a sixth night in Kalbarri and do Monkey Mia as a day trip but it looks like about 4 hours each way as it is 3 sides of a square. Hence there would not be time for anything more than an hour there. But some of the comments suggest that may be enough

renth

I dunno, we went there and stayed in Denham a couple of nights we loved it, it's great. I guess if people are expecting a theme park and a helter skelter they will be disappointed. If they want pristine wilderness with great fishing and amazin coastal landscapes then they will love it. Same with Kalbarri really.

Sam

Sounds cool

its on my wish list of places to see

rockpeblar

Whilst on honeymoon in 2003 we visited Kalbarri for a couple of days. We're both big parrot fans so visited the parrot breeding centre just outside of Kalbarri which was great. We then went to Monkey Mia and were lucky enough to get a beachfront villa which gave us great views of the dolphins swimming into shore in the evening. Also did a trip on the large yacht which was great fun. We also attended a talk by a Canadian researcher on the marine life in Shark Bay which was very interesting and graphic!!
We then spent one day in Coral Bay which was great but wished we spent longer there.
After that we went to Exmouth for a long weekend and went out on a glass bottom boat to look for turtles and watch the whales. Also did some snorkelling at Turquoise Bay and again which we'd stayed longer in Exmouth.
Like others have said there are no theme parks just plenty of natural beauty and long drives!!!

tartankoala

Can't add much to that other than if you want to stay at Monkey Mia book ahead. If you can't get in don't worry too much, Denham is a nice place to stay.

I'd recommend doing the day trip to see the dugongs. We went on the Aristocrat2 which included a trip to the Black Pearl farm (don't worry no pressure to buy pearls just a very interesting demo of how they grow them) and sightings of dugongs and dolphins.

renth

We saw this dude catch and tag a Tiger shark when were on the Shotover catamaran. It was awesome. They don't call it Shark Bay for nothing.