Suggestions for things to see / avoid drving north from perth in Western Australia

interested

Hi

Heading to Western Australia in December for 4 weeks and have about 2 weeks to drive north up the coast as far as Exmouth - the rough plan at the moment is to spend a day or two driving to Coral bay, spend about 3/4 days there at Ningaloo reef and surrounding area, before heading south towards carnarvon (shark bay) and Denham (Monkey Mia) - we were planning to spend at least a couple of days in both areas before heading south again to Kalbarri

Its a rough plan - and based on advice from friends living in perth its wise to stick to the coast at that time of year due to temperatures reaching 40+ celcius inland around the tropic of capricorn on the way north.

If there were places on this route you'd suggest avoiding or things you can recall worth visiting along the way that we've missed please pass em along

Thanks

mikedragon32

That's a fantastic drive and I did it about 6 years ago. Well worth it.

Things to do around Denham would include going to see the beach made entirely of shells. It's quite bizarre. The town of Denham has a few buildings built from them. Apparently the shells are so tightly compacted, they are able to cut them out as bricks for building.

On your way from Denham to Kalbarri (on the road to Kalbarri once you turn off the main road) head for Murchison Gorge. Spectacular scenery. While in Kalbarri be careful while swimming as there can be a pretty bad riptide. Red Bluff has nice cliffs and stuff too.

There's a great place to eat fish in Kalbarri, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called. It used to be a fish freezing plant, but now they barbeque more types of fish than you've ever heard of. It's really cheap and part of the charm is sitting on logs in groups around camp fires. It's a great night out.

Things to avoid are stink bugs. They're big beetles that have a green/black body. If you stand on one, you'll know all about it!

Around Perth take a look at Wave Rock, Avon Valley and Rottnest Island. If you have the time, you should head east to Kalgoorlie or south to Margaret River. The zoo in Perth is pretty good too.

Have a blast. I'm jealous!

interested

Thanks for the pointers
Arrive back in Perth on christmas eve and have a week south of there before a whistle stop flight / tour of Sydney's beaches before heading home so will definitely get down to margaret river region

On a day like this in Dublin ... I cant wait til December

aviendha

Far be it from me to put a dampner on your trip, but I hope you realise exactly how far you will have to drive to get to Coral Bay. It's a serious distance, and unless you plan on driving solid from dawn til dusk, you'll be hard pushed to get up there in 2 days from Perth - unless you have a couple of drivers with you to share the load!

Kalbarri and the gorges are fantastic, and if you plan on seeing the dolphins at Monkey Mia, make sure to time your arrival for 7am, cos they only feed at 7.30ish, and thats it for the day.

Make sure to bring music, as it's a lonesome drive after 10hours (!), but the scenery is fantastic.

interested

no worries about the warning - there's two of sharing the driving and know its a pretty long way - we're just gonna take it as all part of the holiday and not get too stressed about it

oleras

I am heading over on the 5 dec till 28 dec, my brother and his wife live over there, meet you for a beer !!:D