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WA’S CORAL COAST

Words Catherine Lawson

BEST KNOWN FOR ITS WATERY ADVENTURES on Ningaloo—Australia’s largest fringing reef—the Coral Coast is a surprising place to tackle a bushwalk. From the Kennedy Range and Karijini National Parks, to Kalbarri, Cape Range and Francois Peron in Shark Bay World Heritage Area, this collection leads you to remote river gorges for wild, wet walks and rockhopping adventures, and along ridges and sea cliffs to spot petroglyphs and marine life at play. Trails on the arid Coral Coast are characteristically short, so walkers can avoid the worst of the searing midday heat, but at its lowest latitudes in Kalbarri National Park, cool winter conditions allow for one classic multi-day wander.

The Easy Wanamalu Trail

FRANCOIS PERON NP

3.6KM; 1-1.5HRS - EASY

At the very tip of the Peron Peninsula, on the edge of Shark Bay’s vast, tricoloured World Heritage Area, this easy wander rates for its stellar ocean views. The national park’s only formed track, the gentle Wanamalu Trail winds between Cape Peron and Skipjack Point along a knife edge of striking, 250,000-year-old Peron sandstone. Lookouts at either end of the trail overhang white-sand shorelines where cormorants, terns and gulls move in a restless dance between crumbling red cliffs and an aquamarine sea. If you’re lucky, you’ll spot eagle rays and bottlenose dolphins hunting sea mullet in the shallows below. The soft, sandy trail that links the lookouts offers the only real challenge. Arrive in spring when a blaze of wildflowers colours the dunes, and start walking early in the day to catch wild creatures at play.

The Classic Murchison River Gorge

KALBARRI NP

38KM; 4 DAYS – HARD

Deep inside the Murchison River Gorge, on a cavernous stretch of crumbling Tumblagooda sandstone, adventurers rock-hop, climb and shimmy their way downstream through country the Nanda people call Wutumalu. It’s more scrambling than hiking, which is precisely what attracts off-trail adventurers to squeeze through rock crevices, skirt deep pools, wade and swim, and gather drinking water hidden in lofty rock pools. It takes four days to navigate from Ross Graham Lookout onto the Loop Trail at Natures Window, but some extend an already rugged wander by beginning 10km further upstream at Hardabutt Pool. Head to Ross Graham Lookout for easy access into the gorge, then allow two days (18hrs of walking) to reach Z-Bend. Between here and Four-Ways, significant wintertime rains can flood deep, sheer-sided pools, making passage difficult. To stay dry, many walkers detour around it, avoiding the long swim by climbing the Z-Bend access track to the gorge rim, and looping back down again to Four-Ways. Others stash a packraft at Z-Bend and use it to paddle and portage the route to Natures Window before climbing back to the gorge rim via the Loop Trail. The winter rains that replenish drinking-water sources in the gorge bring cooler temperatures and possible flash flooding. Register your hike with Kalbarri National Park rangers (phone 08 9937 1140).

THE AESTHETIC DRAPERS, TEMPLE & HONEYCOMB GORGE TRAILS

KENNEDY RANGE NP 11km; 5.5 HRS – MODERATE-HARD

Scoured into the base of the little-visited Kennedy Range, three gorges—all accessible in steep, hour-long climbs—are best combined into one seriously good rock-hopping adventure. From the park campground, head for Drapers Gorge, where a trail climbs gently past rock canvases etched with Indigenous petroglyphs. From the waterhole at the head of the gorge, retrace your steps thirty minutes back down, admiring the expansive, mulga plain vistas en route. Turn north and follow the trail into Temple Gorge, named for the prominent rock formation that towers overhead.

Boulder-hop back, and then follow the Escarpment Base Trail north, dwarfed beneath the Kennedy Range’s 75km-long plateau of rust-red sandstone. Steep, precipitous cliffs tower above the entrance to Honeycomb Gorge and its intriguing rock amphitheatre of rosy, pitted walls. Cool your heels with a dip in the rock pool, then complete the 11km-long loop by returning to camp before the midday heat kicks in. Arrive after winter rains when wildflowers colour the plains and the days are cooler (July to September).

THE CHALLENGING

BADJIRRAJIRRA TRAIL CAPE RANGE NP 6.8KM; 2-3HRS - MODERATE-HARD

On the other side of Cape Range, gazing inland over the Exmouth Gulf, this challenging trail pulls only the hardiest of adventurers away from their watery fun on Ningaloo Reef. Crossing vast spinifex-covered ridges and dropping through rocky gullies, the trail finally reaches the steep, crumbling edge of Shothole Canyon. It’s a rugged, rubbly wander and the vistas are as staggering as the midday heat, and this is what earns it a Class 4 rating (hard). In December 2012, as the temperature soared to 48˚C, a 14-year-old boy died on the trail. Save this loop trail for the cool winter months, and shake yourself awake long before dawn to make an early start. You’ll find the trailhead 1km from the Thomas Carter Lookout turnoff.

THE RARELY TRAVELLED

KNOX GORGE WET WALK KARIJINI NP 2KM; 1.5-2HRS – HARD

Of all the canyons carved into the high plateau of Karijini’s Hamersley Range, Knox invites the least traffic thanks to some off-route boulder hopping and a seriously steep talus slope. Scramble down this to the bottom of the gorge where sheer walls soar and smooth river slabs edge a watery trail ebbing swiftly away downstream.

Wet-walk and wade through shallow pools shaded by paperbark trees, and shimmy along narrow rock ledges to avoid the deepest of pools. There’s no real trail here, so simply find your own way, switching from one bank to the other. After about thirty minutes in the gorge, the walls close to just a few feet and a breathtakingly steep canyoning dropoff marks the turn-around point for walkers. Retrace your steps and pause to take in lookout vistas over the junction where Knox and Wittenoom Gorges meet.

The clifftop Wanamalu Trail rates for its stellar Shark Bay views Kalbarri’s rugged Murchison River Gorge lures multi-day adventurers off track Rockhop in search of petroglyphs and pools on the Kennedy Range Away from the sea, the Badjirrajirra Trail showcases thirstier scenes of Cape Range NP

CONTRIBUTORS: Inspired by adventures into unpopulated places, author Catherine Lawson and photographer David Bristow are hikers, bikers, paddlers and sailors, who advocate simple, sustainable, self-sufficient living. And they don’t just know about adventuring on the Coral Coast; they literally wrote the book on it; 100 Things To See On Australia’s Coral Coast is available at wildtravelstory.com

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