Western Australia, the largest state in Australia, covering a third of the entire country's land mass. It's a place of vast deserts, turquoise reefs, and some of the most remote and untouched coastlines on Earth. But with so much space, figuring out how to explore it can feel a little overwhelming. The most common thing to do is rent a car or a van. But what about the solo travelers? Well, twice a year, Welcome to Travel have a Welcome to West Coast tour where you can travel with like-minded people up the coast with an incredible tour guide taking you directly to all of the best spots. Having been to Perth a 100

times before, but never venturing north, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to experience this wild part of Australia properly. Starting in Perth, we will travel over 2,000 km up the Coral Coast and back, stopping at some of Western Australia's most iconic locations along the way. From cycling around Rutnest Island and sandboarding Lancelin to swimming with manta rays, turtles, and even whale sharks on the Ningaloo Reef. We will explore national parks, snorkel vibrant coral reefs, and see landscapes that honestly don't even feel real. In Australia, there is a famous saying that west is best. Well, we certainly are about to find out. This is my account of our journey along

Australia's incredible west coast. The tour started in the capital city of WA, Perth, known for being the sunniest capital in Australia. On day one, we met our group in the afternoon, but we all know the best way to break the ice with a new group is to get stuck into an adventure together. So, the vlog here starts on day two where we are heading to the magnificent Rottest Island. We're getting on the ferry. We boarded the ferry from right in the middle of the CBD, which meant we had the most fantastic view of the city as we left. Rottest island is 19 km off the coast of Perth and was separated from mainland Australia about 7,000 years ago after the ice age. Groups all here just about.

I'm so excited. It's a beautiful bluebird day as usual in Perth. Today, Rott Nest is most famous for the quacers who are the small mass suples that are found almost nowhere else on Earth. We're just in the toilet queue and found a copper already. Just by the lockers. No private cars are allowed on the island, so the best way to get around is by cycling. Okay, we are leaving the settlement now. Just going past dome here. Decided, well, I packed some snacks from IGA last night. Uh, which is definitely the way to go. Go to a supermarket before you arrive on Rott Nest. Um, so that you can pack a snack bag because there's not

really cafes on the other side of the island. This is uh the beautiful Parker Point. Look at the turquoise in the middle of that water. This is Little Salmon Bay, which is super gorgeous. But we're not going to stop at this one just because we're a fairly large group and it's a fairly little beach. So, we're going to head on to Salmon Bay. Look how beautiful it is. I know the water is so cold, but you know what? This time of year, it doesn't feel as cold as it does in summer. Cuz I think when it's hotter outside, the water feels even colder. I'm just trying to

make myself feel better, that's all. It's so clear, though. Such a beautiful bluebird day. We've now reached the point where we could do a turn off to the lighthouse, which is just up there over that hill, but it's a big hill. We don't have much time to play around with today. So, I think a lot of us are just going to keep going on to the next stop. Okay, we're at our second stop. This is the beautiful Little Armstrong Bay. Okay, we have arrived in the settlement and there's crockers everywhere. This is the spot for ice cream. I went for vanilla berry swab.

Perfect. After a long day of cycling, this is just what I need. Oh my god. He wanted to eat my food. I'm sorry. You are not allowed to touch or feed the quawkers. However, if the quawker has jumped upon your lap, there's not much you can do. Not me. I promise. Oh, he likes you. Made a friend. I know. Smiley. And just like that, almost 20k of cycling is complete. This was my fifth time cycling around Rottest Island, and it just never ever gets boring. Oh wow. So it is day three. Today is actually mostly a driving day. We're just getting away from Perth for the first time and we are heading up north. Like 6 hours of driving. But we do have an extended stop at a spot which I've never been to

before called the Pinnacles Desert. We like the hat by the way. It's almost already blowing away. It's from Unilo. Oversized bucket hat. thought it'd be very appropriate for uh for the West Coast. We've had the spiel on the Pinnacles Desert and how it was all created. My takeaway is that these pinnacles could be anything between 4,000 and 400,000 years old as we see them today. and that the desert may well have used to have been part of the Daintry rainforest and then all of this was covered up in sand and then the water um took some of the sand and that's what made the pinnacles. Anyway, you're going to have to come here yourself to really find out the details. We have now been let loose in the desert uh on the Emu trail which is quite fun. And there is

like a 5 km driving route, but we're away from the van now. And so we're just going to walk following the pillars of the Emmy route and it will just take us through all of these mysterious stones made of limestone. This is the best thing I've ever done. I'm enjoying this. I love a Mark's trail. You can see the sea in the background. Not very well on this camera, but it's quite funny being in the middle of the desert with the sea. Got a beautiful wrap for lunch. crap station. All right, back on the bus now. I reckon we'll make a few more stops, but we got a lot of driving. We're heading to Calbury National Park.

There's been a bit of a change of plan. We got off at the absolute crack of dawn this morning because um our bus broke down in Geraldton. Uh so we spent the night there as opposed to Cal Barry, which means that the first stop this morning is Port Gregory where there is a pink lake. Though I think at this time it doesn't look overly pink. I believe that it is pink sometimes or it appears pink sometimes. She's a smelly lake. It's very peaceful here though. Water is so still. Got some pink salt here. Not to be confused with pink Himalayan salt because we are not in the Himalayas.

Okay, we have made it to the beautiful Calberry National Park and we've just arrived at the Skywalk first and apparently there's a little cafe here and I think after this early morning a uh Oh, this looks nice. A coffee is well in order. Where are we? I didn't get it on camera, but um we did drive past an emu crossing the road on the way here. Don't know if it's called this, but brew with a view. Calbar National Park protects over 180,000 hectares of rugged outback landscape. Got myself a flower. At its center lies the Mccasen River, which has spent millions of years carving deep gorgees through layers of ancient sandstone. Oh, what a view.

Beautiful. Some of the park's cliffs plunge more than a hundred meters down to the river below. I bought one of these for $10 because these flies are annoying me. Is that how it's supposed to look? But thank you. Not going to lie, I felt really cool. They're just suddenly not bothering me. Phenomenal. What an invention. Luke, is it not the best $10 you've ever spent? Absolutely. 100%. I'm feeling real smug right now. going to do this nature's window trail.

It's a 1 kilometer return. Okay, here is the nature's window. I didn't realize we were actually reaching somewhere which actually looked like this. That's so cool. Oh, we actually didn't go right to the end. You can keep going along here over to there. This is the photo spot. So funny. We're now at another beautiful spot and some of us are going abs sailing. We're just trying to look over and see which cliff we might possibly be abs sailing down like this. Hold that one there behind your boot. Okay. And then lean back and then Yeah, that's it. So just get the rope sliding through there a little bit.

It's the rope. Yeah. Are you going to question my um ability to hook you into that rope then Christie? No. You like Did you do that properly, man? I would never do that. There she goes. She goes, she goes, she goes. She just goes. You got it, girly. Look at this. Hold on. Okay, run. Here you go. Well, that was fun. I'm off. Anything? Okay, cool. Oh, we made it just in time for sunset on Shell Beach. Oh, wa. That's crazy. From a distance, it looks like sand, but close up you really just see it is all shells. beautiful sunrise.

Good morning. It's 6:30 in the morning. Time for breakfast. Such early mornings every day here. But you know what? I'm all about it. As long as I get my early night, I can do that early morning. So, we're actually now in a resort in Monkey Ma where we are going to be swimming with dolphins this morning. That would be pretty cool. Oh, what a beautiful spot. Just had some cereal. The big hat's back on. Got my bag. We don't want to enter the water while the dolphins are chasing fish because as soon as we do step into the water, we become a piece of structure in the water that fish can hide behind.

Monkey Meer, located within the Shark Bay World Wild Heritage Area, is famous for its wild bottl-nose dolphins. For decades, these dolphins have regularly visited the shallow waters along the beach, creating one of the most reliable dolphin encounters in the world. So, they're right there. Oh my goodness. He's looking at us. He literally his eye. The surrounding Shark Bay ecosystem is incredibly diverse with seaggrass meadows that supports the dong, turtles, and countless fish species. It's a reminder of how rich and important these coastal habitats really are. Crazy busy here. This is a really popular activity to do, but it's really nice. It's so peaceful and everyone is so quiet.

even now just chilling on the beach. There is um some dolphins in the water just going past so far and obviously not the cloud um the crowds here now. But we are leaving Monkey Mer shortly. I don't know why it's called Monkey Mer when it's famous for its dolphins. If anyone knows that, can you leave it in the comments cuz I would love to know. I've not seen any monkeys but many dolphins. I wasn't going to go in, but it looks so nice. You are coming in. And we have like over an hour until we leave. So I thought, "Oh, that's enough time to drive." I just really didn't want to be wet on the bus. You know, it is chilly, though.

It's bloody freezing. Oh, and as well as the dolphins, people saw um a turtle here. We've just driven um past eagle lookout on the left hand side of the peninsula here. It's pretty cool. Oh, how stunning does that water look? We're having dinner out tonight. How lovely. In the reef cafe in Coral Bay. We have arrived in Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef officially. Good morning. Day six this morning. Another amazing day and another amazing morning. We're going snorkeling and hopefully seeing some manta rays.

H the water looks amazing. Oh, and we've got some really nice wets suits actually. Optional, but I think they look really cool. And I don't feel too warm outside of the water right now. So, I think a wet suit is definitely going to be a good idea. They're hard to get on. It's very It's a little bit tight. She's She's asked us to size up. Here we go. It's small. I know. I'M A SURPRISE. Before we went swimming with the manta rays, we were dropped at a beautiful reef for a practice snorkel. I'm filming on my Insta 360. And it was at this point that I realized that you really

need the dive casing to capture footage on this camera underwater. I'm always learning lessons as a content creator with new equipment. But alas, we saw turtles, stingrays, lots of beautiful fishies, more turtles, and even a shark. It was such a good snorkel spot. We are now off to the next snorkel site and in about 10 minutes time they are sending up the plane to have a look for the manta rays and they said that once the plane is up it could take 5 minutes or it could take an hour before we are told to jump in. The pilot of the plane is conversing with the skipper of our boat to hopefully help us get to where the mantas are and we can enter the water in a safe way where we can swim

alongside them but not bother them. Be their friend. Manta rays are the largest rays in the ocean with wingspans that can reach up to 7 m. They move through the water using slow, powerful wing-like flaps of their pectoral fins, a motion that is surprisingly energyefficient. As filter feeders, manta rays glide through plankton rich water with their mouths open using specialized gill plates to trap tiny organisms. Here at Ningaloo Reef, they often swim in gentle loops and figure eight patterns, repeatedly circling areas where plankton is the most concentrated. It's a graceful, almost hypnotic movement, one that allows them to feed while barely disturbing the water around them.

It's literally like a magic carpet. Magic. That was so special. It was amazing. That was so cool. Not always this. Oh, nice. How's that? Very good. The water is just absolutely stunning and it was so cool to see the manta. I don't know how well my camera captured it. I was using the Insta 360, but that was so cool. We got to have three different swims with the Mantaay. Why hello there. It is day seven. We spent the night in Xmouth last night. That was really cool. Went for a little run this morning. That was pretty cool as well. Had to go before the sunrise cuz otherwise it was going to be too hot

and also we were leaving for another day of activities. We've come to Turquoise Bay and it is indeed truly turquoise. It's so beautiful. Now there is a drift snorkel here and quite a few members of the group have gone to do that snorkel. Me personally and a few other members of the group. I just wanted to chill today. I feel like we've had a really hectic schedule and so there was another part of the beach like just on Turquoise Bay where we could come and chill and sunbathe. Uh we've brought the esky down to the beach to have a few snacks and it feels so good to just be relaxing. This really is such a stunning part of Australia in general, not just Western Australia. The water is so blue. The

sand is really white and fine. though saying that it is getting on everything when it's really fine sand. And I actually made a little purchase this morning. We stopped in a gift shop close to Turquoise Bay. And I bought because of yesterday's activities a manta ray necklace. And there's some beautiful opal in the manta's wings. Are they called wings? I want to put this on right now. I got this for 25 bucks, which is not very much. And so I don't think it's sterling silver. And it does say to protect it, always remove pride, exercising, swimming, sleeping, and bathing. I won't be doing that. I will be wearing it the whole time and I will wear it until it goes gross. So, we'll

see how long this one lasts. Cute. This Unilo hat, by the way, has been an absolute win, especially with the strong sun here in WA. It's so wide. And I don't think I paid very much for this either. And this has been absolutely essential cuz it can get very windy here as well. You don't want this thing blowing off your head. Now, there was an optional add-on today, which I didn't do, and it was to do a boat trip down the Yardi Creek. Um, some people are doing it, but what I found out is that at Yardi Creek, there's also a little walk to do, nice little scenic walk. And I thought, oh, okay, I think that sounds like something I want to do. So, I guess we're doing Yardi Nature Walk, the Yardi Gorge Trail, whilst the

others are doing the boat trip. Really looking forward to it. Yardi Creek is one of the only permanent water sources in Cape Range National Park. Over millions of years, the creek has slowly carved its way through ancient limestone, creating the dramatic gorge that cuts through the range today. How beautiful is this? It's a bit of a rocky walk. Despite the harsh arid landscape surrounding it, the water here supports a surprising amount of life. Blackfooted rock walabbees shelter among the cliffs while ospreys and other seabirds patrol the gorge overhead. It's a rare pocket of water and wildlife in an otherwise dry and rugged landscape along the Ningalo coast.

We're up to the lighthouse for the sunset. So this is Flamming's Head Lighthouse completed in 1912 at the very northwestern Cape of Australia. It's definitely busy here at sunset, but it's so beautiful. All the views from this as well. Are you excited, Sally? Yay. So, it's a little bit how it is in the Great Barrier Reef today. Going to get on a little boat before we get onto the big boat. By the way, good morning. Today, we are hopefully swimming with whale sharks. Similar to how it worked with the Mantaay. We're going to head out. We're going to go on a little snorkel. Then, they're going to send the plane up to have a little look. And if

they find them, they're going to communicate with the captain, drive towards them, and then we'll hop in with them. Oh god, I'm so excited for the day. She's so excited for the day. We're going to see so many whale sharks. How many? A thousand. In order for us to have the best experience with the whale sharks, we needed to enter the water in a formation given to us by the crew and only enter the water when given their go-ahad. It's quite imperative we get the timing right. So, we practiced our ocean entry at a beautiful practice snorkel spot. And by the way, I learned my lesson and got a dive casing for my Insta 360, so

was able to get some more reliable shots for this experience. Okay, so this is very The pilot has told our captain that they've seen a whale shark, so we're now going full speed ahead. We're all ready. We're all sitting on the boat with our We've defogged it. We've got our fans on. We're in groups. We know the procedure. When they're ready for us, they're going to tell us to jump in. When we entered the water, we had to get in a line following the direction of our guide's arm. Their role was to get us in a straight formation whereby the whale shark would then have the space to swim straight past us and we would not obstruct its motion path.

Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean, growing up to 12 m long. Despite their enormous size, they are gentle filter feeders, swimming slowly through the water with their mouths open to collect plankton and tiny fish. Each whale shark has a unique pattern of white spots across its back, almost like a fingerprint, allowing researchers to identify individual animals. Every year between March and July, Ningaloo Reef becomes one of the best places in the world to encounter them as whale sharks gather here to feed in the nutrient rich waters along the reef.

Ladies, this is hilarious. We saw the whale sharks and everyone's celebrating. I feel like this is just an everyday occurrence here, though. Surely they see them most days. I guess they do. That was awesome. We saw them so many times. We jumped in how many times? Six. Five. I think five with the whale sharks and then one was just a regular five times with the whale sharks. Incredible. Wa. We were up at the crack of dawn on day nine to start our long drive back down to Geraldton. Normally, I'd be quite bored on a long journey like this, but I was just feeling so content with life.

Thinking back at all the absolutely out of thisworld once-ina-lifetime experiences I had just had all in the last week. It was good to get the big journey out of the way yesterday because it meant on our final day we had time for one final epic adventure. The uh the sand looks so white and pristine. We're now off to Lancelin to do some sand boarding and that is exciting. The Lancelin dunes are part of an evershifting coastal dune system formed by thousands of years of wind carrying sand inland from the ocean. Some of the dunes reach heights of over 40 m. Woo! Wa! Good job. Saying goodbye is probably my least favorite part of group trips like this because what do you mean? I've just done some of the biggest bucket list items of

my life with you over the past few days and now I just have to say goodbye. I want to say a huge thank you to Douggee from Autotopia Tours and Mads from Welcome to Travel for putting on such an epic trip up the west coast of Australia. Thank you guys so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed this video. Welcome to Travel have their Welcome to West Coast tour for this year on sale now. And like I said, if you want to travel the West Coast, you really want to be doing it at this specific time of the year so you have the best chance of encountering wildlife like the magnificent whale sharks in all of their glory. I will leave all the links that you need in the description

below, as well as any discount codes that I may have for Welcome to Travel. Make sure you are subscribed to my channel if you want to see even more Australia content. I am currently residing in Sydney, and I'm going to be making lots more about New South Wales and the East Coast coming up. So, make sure you don't miss an upload and I will see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.