Coral Coast Highway

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Perth

   Perth is the most isolated big city on Earth, and you can feel it in the way people talk about the rest of Australia as a different country. About two thousand kilometres of desert separate it from Adelaide, and the next nearest city of any size is across the Indian Ocean. The place has always lived by its own rules and its own sunshine, which is claimed to be the most of any Australian capital. The Swan River, broad and slow, loops past the city centre, and Kings Park, a huge area of bushland and gardens on a hill above, gives a clear view of the skyline and the water.

   Read the complete Perth write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Perth is where the day begins. Next is Pinnacles Desert.

2. 2. Pinnacles Desert

   The Pinnacles are thousands of limestone pillars standing in a field of yellow sand, in Nambung National Park, about two hundred kilometres north of Perth, on the Indian Ocean coast of Western Australia. Some are knee-high, others taller than a person, and they rise out of the desert like a ruined city or a field of tombstones, glowing orange at sunset. Nobody is entirely sure how they formed, but the leading theory is that they are the remains of a limestone layer made from ancient seashells, with the pillars forming where plant roots channelled water and hardened the rock, then exposed when the sand blew away.

   Read the complete Pinnacles Desert write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Pinnacles Desert comes up about 188 km into the recorded legs. Next is Geraldton.

3. 3. Geraldton

   Geraldton sits on Champion Bay, about four hundred kilometres north of Perth, and it is the largest city on the Coral Coast, with more than twenty-six thousand people. It has a deep working harbour, long white beaches and a stiff southerly wind that makes it a magnet for windsurfers and kitesurfers, who flock to the beaches near the city in summer. The air smells of salt and diesel, and the light is brilliant.

   Read the complete Geraldton write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 424 km into the recorded legs you reach Geraldton. Next is Kalbarri.

4. 4. Kalbarri

   Kalbarri is a small town on the mouth of the Murchison River, where the river meets the Indian Ocean, and it is the gateway to a national park of the same name. The park covers a huge area of sandstone plateau, cut by deep gorges that expose layers of red and white rock laid down hundreds of millions of years ago. Lookouts such as Nature's Window, a natural arch framing the river below, and the Z Bend, where the gorge folds back on itself, are the main attractions, and the Skywalk platforms stick out into the void for those with a head for heights.

   Read the complete Kalbarri write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kalbarri, about halfway. Next is Shark Bay.

5. 5. Shark Bay

   The bay is a huge, shallow, salty inlet of the Indian Ocean, and it holds the largest seagrass meadows in the world, which feed a population of dugongs, turtles and dolphins. The water is clear, the sand is white and the cliffs are red.

   Read the complete Shark Bay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Shark Bay sits at 2095 km, late in the day. Next is Exmouth.

6. 6. Exmouth

   Exmouth is a long way from anywhere, and that is the whole point. The town sits near the tip of the North West Cape in Western Australia, where the Coral Coast Highway runs out of continent, with the Indian Ocean on one side and the shallow Exmouth Gulf on the other. From Carnarvon it is a full day of red dirt, scrub and sky, and when the first sign of the Cape Range appears on the horizon you feel genuinely rewarded.

   Read the complete Exmouth write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 1636 km.