Sharing Our Experience In This Precious Wilderness Region of Australia…

Western Australia has some stunning scenery, some of the best beaches in Australia, fascinating wildlife and a superb wine region. It’s a vast state and covers almost one third of the country … roughly the size of California or three times the size of UK but with a population of only 40,000. I visited a very special part, the Kimberley, and it is certainly easy to understand why this destination is stated to be one of the world’s most precious wilderness regions.

Think Alaska and then think Grand Canyon and somewhere in your imagination would be the Kimberley. You will find plenty of wildlife here, as well as magnificent canyons, freshwater swimming holes and absolutely superb 4WD road trips. Despite it being rather remote it is, surprisingly, a great place for excellent food, very friendly people and the most luxurious accommodation. After my superb superyacht trip, I next visited El Questro, over 700,000 acres in size and stayed at the lovely homestead, which has 12 suites. This used to be a challenging cattle property but was transformed into what it is today over 20 years ago. In terms of activities, one of the best ways to spend the rest of your morning after a hearty breakfast is to venture out in a helicopter for a breathtaking and different perspective of waterfalls, gorges and cliffs. There are also hikes, thermal springs, ancient gorges, wildlife & flora and super fishing locations. Any, or all, of these activities can be done with an excellent guide – a bit like a concierge but with dynamic knowledge and a promise to save you from crocodiles!

El Questro operates road transfers from Kununurra airport.

My final stop on this epic Kimberley voyage was Ningaloo Reef and my pillow for 3 nights was the wonderful Sal Salis, a tented camp of the luxury kind. This property began as a regular camp site and, at about the same time at El Questro, went through a transformation to a very stylish ‘glamping’ resort. It could not be better paired with El Questro for a holiday … turquoise lagoons from barren red soils.

The reef itself is UNESCO World Heritage-listed, and you will find plenty of sharks along with humpback whales, manta rays and turtles. If you don’t fancy swimming with all of them, you can kayak or enjoy looking at them from a glass bottomed boat. You could also have a go at fly fishing, go on a guided gorge walk or explore Cape Range National Park to find emus, kangaroos, echidnas, and black-flanked rock wallabies.

At Sal Salis, the reef is literally metres away from the tents. The camp has 15 luxury tents all the same and one special honeymoon tent. At the heart is The Sal Salis Lodge, where everyone meets,

shoeless of course, to tell stories and enjoy wonderful food prepared by acclaimed chefs who understand that your dining experience will likely be just as important to you as the reef is.

The best way to get to this wonderful part of the world is to fly to Exmouth (Learmonth airport) and from there Coral Bay is centrally located within the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park is about 150km south. It’s about a 12 hour drive from Perth, the capital of the state.