No time to do ‘the Big Lap' of Australia? Do this road trip instead
This article is part of Traveller's Holiday Guide to Australian road trips. See all stories.
As a concept, the Big Lap, that circumnavigation of Australia in which families pack up and head off to explore the Wide Brown Land, all 40,000 kilometres by road, sounds idyllic.
An endless, relaxed summer of homeschooled, free-range kids discovering their big and diverse backyard untethered from screens. Parents relieved off the hamster wheel of work and life admin, free to plan the next day's adventure at leisure.
We are not that family. That much is obvious on our (far less ambitious) motorhome trip on Australia's Coral Coast, when we line up next to the fully committed with their big rigs towing caravans, bikes, boats and other toys into those unforgettable sunsets reserved for out bush.
For starters, our two kids have morphed into young adults and, as it should be, are making their own life plans that don't include a year on the road sleeping next to their parents.
What's more, allowing less than a week to follow those 1200 kilometres from Perth to Exmouth seems perfunctory, superficial even, especially when the route ends at Nyinggulu/Ningaloo, one of the world's largest fringing coral reefs, which abuts the rugged Cape Range and has been described by author Tim Winton as one of the last intact wild places on the planet.
But we know our days travelling as a unit are numbered (although they may well boomerang back to bank of mum and dad-funded holidays). So we find time to try for a short trip, more 'little line' than the Big Lap, in the hope that some red dust of the outback and saltwater will rub off on our kids. Or at the very least damage their phones – and in truth, ours.
Escape from the city: Perth to Kalbarri, distance 574 kilometres, six hours
In the spirit of all things big in a state the size of Western Europe, we pull out from the Perth depot onto the busy freeway in a Star RV Polaris 6. It's like taking a newborn home from the hospital, only this baby is bigger.
Aside from the engine, it's quiet inside; even the smart alecs down the back know to zip it as we get to grips with our home away from home. This third baby, it turns out, is a dream. At 2.3 metres it's no wider than a RAM ute, and on the wide open road its 3.6-metre height is not an issue. We're taking the advice of locals all the way, starting with the Indian Ocean Drive for the picturesque route and one restricted to light vehicles and tourist uses. We'll rejoin Highway 1 further north. It purrs along the freeway, and soon we're cruising past saltbush and wild ocean to the left, pavlova-like sand dunes to our right.
At sunset we're still driving, despite knowing better given wildlife like this time of night, but we take it slow and are rewarded with a big-sky sunset that starts at Hutt Lagoon (Pink Lake) and carries us all the way to Kalbarri, 55 kilometres down the highway.
In the pitch black, caravan park manager Emily welcomes us like long-lost family and guides us to a drive-through site. There will be no reversing into awkward spaces, just plugging into power and settling in for the night.
Just like that other cultural icon, the mullet (and son's current hairstyle), the RV is all business up the front and party down the back in a bubble of self-sufficiency.
We have all the creature comforts; a bathroom, kitchen and sink with gold tapware, air-con, mood lighting and an electric step to exit the tiny home. In the dining nook we toast the day with drinks that have been chilling in a fridge big enough for food and liquid refreshments. At night, we retire to our comfortable double beds. Parents are up the back, son at the front up a ladder into an elevated man cave with privacy curtain and daughter in the dining booth that easily converts to a bed. My tent days might be over.
Sheeting rain the next morning doesn't stop us from hanging on the edge of the world at the Kalbarri Skywalk, where one of the two platforms is longer (at 25 metres) than the US Grand Canyon equivalent and overhangs a 100-metre drop above the Murchison River and Gorge. The tidal layers of rippled sandstone formed over 40 million years, today wet and glistening, are more vertiginous and thrilling than any confected theme park.
We're 'floating' in Nanda country, all 17,000 kilometres of it. The last fluent speaker of the Nanda language, Lucy Ryder, died in 2003, and while the language is not spoken day to day, it was recorded and is being kept alive by its people.
The other lookout Nature's Window, five minutes down the road is just as photogenic but without the all-access skywalk platform. Unlike so many blockbuster views around the globe, we have the views of the river, framed by Tumblagooda Sandstone, all to ourselves.
Tasman Holiday Parks Kalbarri, powered sites from $75 a night. See
The smooth bitumen of Highway 1 gives way to a bone-rattling entrance over corrugated road to Wooramel's 144,000-hectare working cattle and goat station and its outback nirvana for campers. Campsites stretch along the riverbank lined with giant gums and across green lawn, overlooking an 'upside down' river that only runs on the surface a few times a year, the remainder flowing through sandy aquifers.
Guests can do a 70-kilometre self-drive 4WD station tour, taking in 60 kilometres of coastline fronting the Shark Bay heritage area.
We soak away the day in the mineral-rich artesian baths of 30-plus degrees that have originated from the Birdrong aquifer 240 metres below the surface. And this is how we come to find ourselves, BYO plates and cutlery in hand, and now at the back of the dinner queue now spilling from an undercover area to a grassy patch festooned by lights.
But there's still plenty left by the time we get to sample Swiss-French chef Pierre's Guinness pie and Englishman and sous chef Alfie's damper and mashed potatoes in what is genuine, super-sized hospitality under the stars. Retiring to the RV early, it's card games instead of Netflix for the first time in an age before lights out.
'Get off ya phone,' yells the eldest from his man-cave. He's mimicking me of course, so I do what I'm told.
Wooramel River Retreat campsites from $70 a night. See wooramel.com.au
Whale watch: Wooramel to Coral Bay, distance 350 kilometres, 3½ hours
Early nights give way to early starts, even for the youth who are happy to be on the road.
Like so many, we've come to Coral Bay hoping to spot whale sharks and maybe even swim alongside these biggest fish in the world, weighing in at 19,000 kilograms each, during a day on the water exploring Ningaloo/ Nyinggulu Reef.
But as nature has intended, they've left the area.
'They go where the food is, and we think they've headed to Indonesia,' says guide and crew member Hannah as we motor over crystalline waters.
Their absence matters little when our captain spots a school of manta rays, and we jump off the back of the boat to watch these creatures, with a wingspan of four metres, tumble over and over.
In between snorkels we spot pods of humpback whales that have just arrived in the area; dugongs, turtles and dolphins and further out to sea, a pod of humpback whales just arrived to this area. We don't see a whale shark but bigger is not always better. For once, the kids appear to agree with their parents.
Bill's Bar for pub meals including local snapper and prawns.
The jolt of a 6am pick-up in Exmouth is assuaged with breakfast and coffee that our guide, Rob, has brought for our early morning drive, sun rising over the other wordly stone country into Cape Range National Park.
Hiking atop Yardie Creek, sheer rock walls dropping to the creek below, younger sets of eyes are the first to spot the perfectly still and rare black-footed wallaby and the raptor osprey taking flight from cliffside nests.
The lime karst system underneath was itself once an ancient reef and middens, fish traps and burial grounds mark the occupation of the traditional owners, Baiyungu, Thalanyji and Yinigurdira people. Discovered here in a rock shelter and at 32,000 years old, the Mandu Mandu beads, shells with delicately drilled holes for stringing and adornment, is some of the oldest jewellery in the world.
Aerial shots of the range meeting the ocean, an unreal landscape of saturated colour, blinding white sand, turquoise ocean and broad sweeps of coral, always seemed an illusion. Now, up close and just metres from the beach as we 'drift' snorkel Turquoise Bay, the detail is enchanting.
'The best way it's been described to me is that these places are living, breathing kingdoms,' Rob says of the reef which suffered serious coral bleaching in February.
The current takes us over coral gardens and past boulders of bommie coral rising from the seabed. We float past giant clams and my husband, who has just spotted a loggerhead turtle, is as skittish as the clown fish darting about.
Before we reach the sandbar and the stronger currents caused by a build-up of water in the lagoon we exit, together.
When you don't have months to spare, just take the days.
Exmouth RACV Powered site from $53 a night. See parksandresorts.rac.com.au; Ningaloo in a Day tour. From $245, $220 (child) . See exmouthadventureco.com.au; Whale Bone Brewing whalebonebrewing.com.au
The details
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Drive The Polaris 6 motorhome is the largest in the fleet and accommodates up to six people. From $120 a day. There are nine motorhome branches across Australia, including a seasonal branch in Darwin, and vehicles can be collected at one point and dropped at another. Drivers must be aged above 21 and hold a full licence in English. P2 licence holders are also eligible. International travellers require a home-country licence, plus an International Driver's Permit (IDP) or a translation. See starrv.com/au
Tour
Book campsites and accommodation well ahead, keeping in mind differing school holidays between states. National Parks Pass allows entry to all parks in WA. See westernaustralia.com/au/home and australiascoralcoast.com
Watch
Tim Winton's documentary Ningaloo Nyinggulu. See iview.abc.net.au
Five more great Australian adventures
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Water therapy Togs are compulsory in Kakadu, Litchfield and Nitmiluk and its gorges, swimming and waterholes. See northernterritory.com
Fresh daily Get your fill of oysters, lobster and other seafood on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. Surrounded by the pristine waters of Spencer Gulf and the Great Australian Bight, the region delivers about 70 per cent of South Australia's seafood. See southaustralia.com
Dinosaur hunt Remote Queensland towns Hughenden, Richmond and Winton are home to some of the world's best-preserved fossils and evidence of dinosaur stampede. See outbackqueensland.com.au
Get high Take your time on north-east Victoria's Great Alpine Road for some of the state's best food and wine in Bright, Milawa and Beechworth. See visitvictoria.com
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