Western Wonders - Motorhome Holiday

Nineteen nights in a loop from Perth in a motorhome, up the Western Australian coast and back, with the flights included.

Perth takes the first two nights in a hotel, with the beaches, the Swan River and Fremantle, before the motorhome is collected. Cervantes comes first on the road, for the Pinnacles, a field of limestone columns standing out of yellow sand in Nambung National Park, then Kalbarri, where the Murchison River has cut gorges inland and the coastal cliffs drop into the Indian Ocean.

Denham follows in Shark Bay, a world heritage area for its seagrass meadows and its stromatolites, where wild dolphins come into the shallows at Monkey Mia. Coral Bay and Exmouth come next on the Ningaloo coast, where the reef can be swum to from the beach and whale sharks visit between March and July. Carnarvon, Geraldton and Yanchep close the loop, the last with limestone caves and koalas on a boardwalk.

Flights, two nights in a four-star Perth hotel and fifteen nights of maui Ultima motorhome hire for two with zero-excess insurance are included; national park entrance fees are payable locally. Twenty days for this coast is a fair pace, with the long legs in the middle. Winter and spring are the seasons, and spring brings the wildflowers out along the whole route. No wildlife sighting can be promised, and the whale shark swims are licensed and booked locally rather than through the package. Fuel stops thin out north of Kalbarri, so topping up at every town is the habit to get into.