Ningaloo and Karijini
A reef you enter from the beach to meet turtles and whale sharks, then gorges of red iron 2.5 billion years old: the wild West is the country's best-kept secret.
Suggested stay — 5 to 7 nights
1,250 km north of Perth, Ningaloo Reef does what the Great Barrier cannot: it starts twenty metres from the sand. At Turquoise Bay you drift on the current over the coral; at Coral Bay, turtles graze in front of the children; and from March to July, whale sharks cruise off Exmouth — the guided swim with the world's largest fish (spotter plane included) is one of the most reliable wildlife encounters on the planet, alongside year-round manta rays and humpback whales from June to October.
Six hours' drive inland, Karijini flips the scenery: gorges carved into the red iron of the Pilbara, icy natural pools at the bottom of corridors of banded rock — Fern Pool in Dales Gorge, the spider walk of Hancock Gorge, the vertiginous Oxer Lookout. You camp on bare red earth (Dales Campground, book ahead in season), you descend wading through water, and you understand why insiders rank it above many famous parks. The Ningaloo-Karijini combination alone justifies a flight to Perth or Exmouth.
Don't miss
- The whale-shark swim from Exmouth (March-July), with a licensed operator
- The Turquoise Bay drift snorkel and the turtles of Coral Bay
- Dales Gorge at Karijini: Fern Pool, Fortescue Falls and the in-gorge circuit
- Hancock and Weano Gorges down to Kermits Pool, and Oxer Lookout at sundown
Our tips on the ground
- Book the whale-shark trip early in your stay: on a blank day (rare — the spotter plane does its job well), most operators take you out again for free.
- At Turquoise Bay, enter at the south end and get out BEFORE the gap at the beach's north end: the current that makes the drift so good will otherwise carry you out to sea.
- Between Exmouth and Karijini, allow 6 hours via Nanutarra: full tank, ideally two spare wheels, and not a litre less than 5 L of water per person — the Pilbara does not forgive improvisation.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Australia on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about Ningaloo and Karijini
Ningaloo or the Great Barrier Reef?
Two philosophies: the Great Barrier is visited by boat, with Cairns' infrastructure behind it; Ningaloo is lived from the beach, fins on your feet, with a tenth of the crowds. For coral straight off the shore, whale sharks and end-of-the-world atmosphere, Ningaloo wins; for the reef's sheer scale and logistical ease, the Barrier. The luckiest do both.
Can you do this loop in a standard rental campervan?
Yes: Perth-Exmouth along the coast and Karijini via Nanutarra and Tom Price are sealed, and Karijini's internal roads remain manageable with care (check that your contract allows the few kilometres of gravel to the western gorges — otherwise stick to Dales). Allow 10-14 days for the full loop from Perth — it's a minimum of 2,500 km on the clock.