Share Bus Broome to Perth

Map

DAY 1: BROOME TO 80 MILE BEACH

Get on the bus with your new friends in Broome, the old pearling town, and do a big food shop together. This is a shared rental, so the route below is the recommended plan and your group can change it. Then drive south to 80 Mile Beach, which is actually about 220 km long. It's famous for shell collecting, fishing and the huge flocks of migratory shorebirds on its flats. Swimming isn't safe because of crocodiles and sharks, so enjoy a drink on the sand, cook a communal dinner and get to know your trip mates.

DAY 2: MARBLE BAR

Head inland to Marble Bar, famous as the hottest town in Australia: in 1923 and 1924 it stayed above 37.8°C for 160 days in a row. It won't be that hot on this trip. The town is named after a bar of red jasper across the Coongan River that early prospectors mistook for marble. The drive shows you real red Australia, so stop at the pub for a beer, then visit the gorges and waterholes around town, where you can also camp.

DAY 3: MARBLE BAR TO PORT HEDLAND

Spend the morning at the gorges around Marble Bar, then head to Port Hedland, one of the biggest bulk export ports in the world, where iron ore trains more than two kilometres long roll in from the Pilbara mines. Swim at the beach and buy whatever you need before the drive to Karijini.

DAYS 4-6: KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

It's a long drive to Karijini National Park, but once you're there, set up camp for a few nights. There are waterfalls, swimming holes, hikes and deep gorges cut through rock about 2.5 billion years old. Climb Punurrunha (Mount Bruce), at 1,234 metres the second-highest peak in Western Australia. Walk into Dales Gorge to Fortescue Falls, which runs all year. Stop at a visitor centre on the way for maps, and the guidebook has plenty more ideas.

Overnight: Karijini National Park (camping)

DAY 7: KARIJINI TOWARDS EXMOUTH

Spend the morning in Karijini before starting the long drive west to the coast. Rather than pushing all the way to Exmouth, a town founded in 1967 to support the American naval communications station on the cape, set up camp at a working station or a free camp a couple of hours short. Relax for the evening and finish the drive the next morning.

Overnight: A station stay or free camp before Exmouth

DAYS 8-9: EXMOUTH AND CAPE RANGE NATIONAL PARK

Cruise into Exmouth, look around town and stock up on supplies and water. Then head into Cape Range National Park, and camp there if you can. Snorkel the Oyster Stacks, rocky pillars crusted with oysters and ringed by fish, best at high tide, or drift along Turquoise Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Hike the gorge at Yardie Creek, home to black-footed rock-wallabies, or the rim of Charles Knife Canyon. For an extra cost you can join a tour to swim with whale sharks, the biggest fish in the sea, or go diving.

Overnight: Cape Range National Park (camping, if you can get a spot)

DAYS 10-11: CORAL BAY

Spend a morning on the Cape Range beaches, then head south to Coral Bay, a tiny town on a beautiful beach where you can snorkel the Ningaloo Reef straight off the sand. Ningaloo runs about 260 km down this coast and was World Heritage-listed in 2011. Coral starts only a few metres from shore. Stay a couple of nights.

Overnight: Coral Bay

DAY 12: CARNARVON AND THE QUOBBA BLOWHOLES

Make the most of a morning in Coral Bay, then drive south. Stop first at the Quobba Blowholes, where swells force the sea up through holes in the limestone ledge, sometimes as high as 20 metres. Then spend time in Carnarvon, a fruit-growing town on the Gascoyne River, which flows underground for most of the year. Stock up, pick up mangoes from the farms and walk the boardwalk.

DAYS 13-14: MONKEY MIA AND SHARK BAY

Head into the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Stop at Shell Beach, made of countless tiny cockle shells piled metres deep, at Eagle Bluff, where a clifftop boardwalk looks down on sharks, rays and turtles, and at Denham, the most westerly town in Australia. Then stay at Monkey Mia, where wild bottlenose dolphins have been swimming up to the beach since the 1960s. Laze on the beach, play games and watch for marine life.

Overnight: Monkey Mia

DAY 15: SHARK BAY AND HAMELIN POOL

See what you haven't yet of Shark Bay, perhaps with a picnic at Little Lagoon, a round, sheltered lagoon outside Denham joined to the sea by a narrow creek. Then head to Hamelin Pool for the night. Its water is about twice as salty as the open sea, and stromatolites grow along the shore: rocky mounds built by microbes, living examples of one of the earliest forms of life on earth.

Overnight: Hamelin Pool

DAY 16: KALBARRI NATIONAL PARK

Kalbarri National Park is famous for its gorge, cut 80 km through layered red and white sandstone by the Murchison River. Everyone stops at Nature's Window, a natural arch framing a bend in the river, but don't stop there. Do one or two of the hikes, walk down into the gorge and maybe go for a swim.

DAY 17: KALBARRI AND HUTT LAGOON

Spend more time around Kalbarri, at the mouth of the Murchison River, walking the coast paths along sea cliffs that rise around 100 metres above the ocean. As you leave, stop at Hutt Lagoon, a lake that glows pink because of a salt-loving alga packed with beta-carotene, the same pigment that colours carrots.

DAY 18: GERALDTON AND ELLENDALE POOL

Head to Geraldton to stock up and see the town. On the hill above it, the HMAS Sydney II memorial has a dome of 645 steel gulls, one for each sailor lost when the ship went down in 1941. There are animal parks around town and an old homestead said to be haunted. Just south, Ellendale Pool is a deep waterhole on the Greenough River beneath a tall sandstone cliff, good for a swim, a walk or a night's camp.

DAY 19: GREENHEAD AND JURIEN BAY

A day at the beach. Heading south, stop at Dynamite Bay near Greenhead, with picnic facilities and coastal walking trails. Further on, at Jurien Bay, you can snorkel with Australian sea lions, an endangered species found only in Australia. There's a beach camp at Sandy Cape, among big white dunes, with more snorkelling off the beach.

Overnight: Sandy Cape (beach camp)

DAY 20: THE PINNACLES AND LANCELIN

See the Pinnacles at Cervantes, thousands of limestone pillars standing in yellow sand in Nambung National Park, some taller than a person. They look like something from another world. Then head south to Lancelin, a fishing town backed by huge white dunes, for sandboarding, kayaking or swimming.

DAY 21: YANCHEP AND PERTH

On the last day, stop at Yanchep National Park to see kangaroos on the lawns and koalas, which aren't native to Western Australia and were brought here in the 1930s. Then drive into Perth. Enjoy the rest of the day with your new mates: Kings Park, bigger than New York's Central Park, the beach at Cottesloe or the markets in Fremantle. Clean up the minibus, then share a beer to end the trip.

Map

• Sleeping bag
• Water bottle
• Sunscreen
• Torch
• Luggage limited to about 20 kg: one big bag and one small day pack

• Toyota Hiace minibus (not for 4WD roads)
• Trailer with all camping and cooking equipment
• Fuel for unlimited kilometres
• Comprehensive insurance with roadside assistance
• National park entries
• Consumables such as toilet paper, cooking oil, gas and bin bags
• Recommended itinerary and guidebook of activities and campsites
• Discounts on activities and accommodation, including whale shark swims

Not included

• Most accommodation — free camps or budget paid campsites
• Food — all the cooking equipment is provided
• Sleeping bag — bring your own
• A guide — it's you and your fellow travellers

Preparing for the trip

Private tours and families

Booking the trip

Who travels with us

Cost and Fees

Whilst on tour