TAKE ME AWAY

Western Australia is a pilgrimage for the soul — Coral Bay and Exmouth along the Coral Coast are where the real journey starts

- Words SYAZIL ABD RAHIM

Spanning a third of the Australian continent, Western Australia (WA) is vast, wild and utterly unforgettable.

With over 20,000 km of pristine coastline hugging both the mainland and island edges, this corner of the world is home to some of Earth's oldest minerals — and natural wonders you won't find anywhere else. Perth, the nation's sunniest city, may offer an urban taste of the region's charm, but to truly understand WA's magic, you have to head north.

Our journey begins in Coral Bay, Exmouth, an idyllic slice of paradise where the land meets the sea in spectacular fashion. Imagine this: pure white sand underfoot, the clearest turquoise waters stretching out in front of you, and the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef just steps away. It's the world's largest fringing reef and one of the rare places where you can snorkel straight off the beach into a kaleidoscope of marine life. Resisting the urge to dive in is nearly impossible.

Coral Bay is blessed with sunshine year-round and a pace of life that invites you to slow down. You can reach it by road on a two-day drive along the Coral Coast Highway, one of Australia's greatest scenic drives, and often hailed as one of the best road trips on the planet. Yes, it's a trek. But every stretch of that journey is cinematic. Prefer to fly? A two-hour flight to Learmonth Airport followed by a 90-minute drive gets you there with time to spare.

At the southern tip of Ningaloo's 5,000 km² of biodiverse reef habitats, Coral Bay is tailor made for exploration at your own rhythm. From March to June, it's one of the few places on Earth where you can swim alongside the largest fish in the ocean — the gentle, otherworldly whale shark. From June to November, humpback whales take centre stage, breaching and gliding just off the coast. Year-round, encounters with manta rays, turtles, and even dugongs offer more than a few reasons to linger in this sun-drenched town.