Our Australian Roadtrip to Monkey Mia & Kalbarri in 4 Days
We had a four-day long weekend in our hands and we were wondering what else is there to explore close to Perth? Everything in Western Australia is pretty far and we didn’t want to go back to places we’d already been to. So we looked at the map and after some days of planning, we decided to do a roadtrip up north.
We spent most of the time in the car, driving across the Australian plains, watching how the landscape changes from green to yellow to red.
Here’s our experience on our Easter roadtrip north of Western Australia.
DAY 1 – Perth to Monkey Mia
We set off very early, we were on the road by 6 am. We had a long way to go: 850km to be exact, around 9 hours driving.
The road from Perth to Geraldton was nice, partially a coastal scenery, many towns close to one another, and then Geraldton, which is the 4th biggest establishment in WA. We made a pit stop, refuelled and got more hot water for our “mate”. We needed it.
After Geraldton there are some farms and a small historic town called Northampton where the road deviates to Kalbarri. That was the end of civilization, and we were only halfway.
The next 180km were deadly, just the road and neverending land. The landscape started to change more abruptly: yellow hollows were replaced by red dirt and dry bushes, and not a sign of human establishments. After two long hours of music and “mate”, we made it to Billabong. What appeared as a town in the map was actually only a roadhouse: a very well equipped roadhouse, with accommodation, fuel, a restaurant and everything you might need to survive on the road. The heat was terrible and the flies were insufferable. We had lunch there, contemplating the nothingness that surrounded us. Fortunately there were a lot of cars, which made us feel like we were not alone in the middle of nowhere.
Other 50 kilometres to the Overlander roadhouse, right at the entrance to the Shark Bay Heritage Area. We refuelled and left the main road and into Shark Bay Road. What seemed to be a small detour on the map was actually a 2-hour drive on a paved but bumpy road. Two short stops in Hamelin Pool and Shell Beach, just to get out of the car, and then another long drive.
We finally made it to Monkey Mia around 6pm, checked in the RAC Resort (the only hotel there) and finally relaxed. The resort is great, right on the beach, and it has many options for all budgets, including a hostel, which is where we were staying. There’s a kitchen, barbecues, a restaurant and a bar.
The wifi connections were down and we had no phone reception at all, but the lady in reception was nice enough to share her internet with us so we could let people know that we’d arrived safe and sound. We heard some more bad news when she told us that the bar was closed because it was Good Friday and the only way to get alcohol was to have a main course at the restaurant.
As we were dying to have a cold beer, we went to the restaurant, even if it wasn’t the cheapest option, and had fish and chips with a pint of James Squire. We went straight to bed and fell asleep almost instantly.
DAY 2 – Monkey Mia
We woke up really early and went to the beach for breakfast. As we were drinking our “mate” and eating madeira cake while watching the sunrise, we saw some unexpected fins coming to shore: the dolphins had arrived!
We ran to greet them only to be met by a lady from the Dolphin Centre asking us to move away from the beach as dolphins would expect food. So we patiently waited on a boardwalk until it was time to feed them. In the meantime we saw an emu walking around the premises, clearly summoned by the smell of bacon and eggs coming from the restaurant.
At 7.45 it was finally time to feed the dolphins, and by then around 100 people had gathered. We all walked up to the shore where the ladies told us about the natural inhabitants of Shark Bay. The dolphins were very close, but we were not allowed to touch them. Only a few people were chosen to feed them some fish and we were not the lucky ones.
We felt the whole experience was very touristy and not natural at all, but we were still happy that we could see wild dolphins up close.
After the feeding was finished we hanged at the beach and rented a paddle board which was very hard to steer due to the strong winds. The best part was that the dolphins were swimming back and forth so we got to see them a lot.
At noon we drove to Denham, the only town in Shark Bay, and had lunch at a pub. We saw an emu walking the streets as if he owned them and that was very funny.
We then went back to Monkey Mia and just relaxed for the rest of the day, drank beer at the bar and watched the sunset.
DAY 3 – Kalbarri National Park
Another early start, we left Monkey Mia before 7am because we had a long way to Kalbarri. We had to undo the 150km of Shark Bay Road plus the other 150 km of Australian desert going south.
After around 4 hours we got to the Kalbarri detour and entered the National Park. From then on it was just a matter of following the signs to the different lookouts.
Our first stop was Hawk’s Head and Ross Graham lookouts. The landscape was completely different from any other we’d seen in WA. A red sandstone gorge crossed by a dark green watercourse, the Murchison River.
Our second stop was a bit more famous. Nature’s Window is a whole in the rock formations that looks out to the river. It is a very popular sight in WA and for that reason it was full of people lining up to take a picture. We waited under the scorching sun to get our picture taken, then on to explore the area for a bit.
It was too hot to wander, but the place looks gorgeous, with amazing views and walking trails.
The next stop was supposed to be the Z-Bend but when we got there we found out you had to walk for around half an hour to get to the lookout. Due to the heat and our time constrain we decided to skip it and head straight to Kalbarri town.
Trying to have lunch after 2pm was very hard, so we ended up buying bread, ham and cheese and having a picnic in the park. We still had some more sightseeing to do before going to Geraldton, where we had booked our hostel, and it was already 3pm.
We set off once more to drive around the Kalbarri Coastal Cliffs, another amazing sight, probably our favourite of the whole trip.
After checking out all the lookouts, we headed towards Geraldton, which was around 2 hours away. The scenery on the road coloured by the sunset was beautiful.
We finally made it to Geraldton, happy to see some civilization, and headed towards the Geraldton Backpackers on the Foreshore, where we had a reservation. We loved the hostel! The place is super cute, perfectly clean and the owner is super nice.
We cooked pasta in the kitchen and had dinner with the owner and some other people. We met some interesting people.
DAY 4 – Geraldton to Perth
We had some simple breakfast at the hostel, talking to some more interesting people, like an aussie girl who had just crossed the Nullarbor and an American who was traveling to Broome on a motorbike. Everyone was super curious about our “mate”.
We then went for a stroll around town, took some pictures of cool street art, visited a church and walked the foreshore. It was then time to head back home.
On the way we stopped at the leaning trees of Greenough, a curious natural phenomenon. The trees seem to have fallen but they actually grew that way due to the strong winds in the region.
We then stopped again for a quick lunch at the Dongara roadhouse, and then non-stop to Perth. We were happy to be back in civilization after so many kilometres of nothingness. The experience was completely worth the long drive. Tripping north is absolutely different than Perth and the Southwest.
Also check out our recommendations for Daytrips from Perth
Here’s a map of the full roadtrip loop: