hollycat

Hi there, we have a week in Perth early May and are planning to drive to Monkey Mia and spend a couple of days there. How long is the drive from Perth to MM?

We want to be able to see places of interest on drive to Monkey Mia rather than just rush to get there, how many days should be allow to get there? We know about Pinnacles and Geraldton are there any other places to head for?

We will be picking car up from Perth Int airport around 3pm and look to drive a couple of hours that first day towards MM, is there a hotel/ place of interest to stay at that approx distance?

Would appreciate your help, we have been to Australia before and know how vast the place is.

afterall

There's Kalbarri with a pretty bay and a gorge and some good fish and chips if I remember rightly. Also a birdpark - if it's still there.

I can't remember times and distances - anyway I was on a bus - but why don't you look it up? Google is your friend.

Here's a good one .. and the answer is 852.93kms.

http://www.racq.com.au/travel/trip_p...e=WA&x=30&y=14

Cheers.

Bushranger

Travelling north from Perth the road is well away from the coast for most parts and places of interest few and far between.

Kalbarri certainly well beyond a two hour drive, way past Geraldton and what you'll have as choces are a series of smaller country towns.

If you've been flying for sometime, especially from overseas you ought to min imise your driving first day, couple of hours as you mention being a good limit.
That'll put you somewhere about Badgingarra where there is an adjacent national park.
. http://www.smh.com.au/news/Western-A...500207995.html

And yes, accommodation options will be limited but Waddi Emus!

About another 20 km. on there is a 40 km. access to a route that runs closer to the coast coast you may want to consider, starting with a town of Jurien and heading north for about 100 km. before rejoining the Brand Highway just south of Dongara about 70 km. south of Geraldton.

But you ought to find out about the road for not aware if it is sealed all the way or not.
www.travelmate.com.au may help in that regard.

Looks like there may be a new road that starts at Cervantes which you may be able to access on sealed road from before Badgingarra and Cervantes will certainly give you more accommodation options and in morning or for a late sunset if away from airport quickly you could have a look at the Pinnacles
. http://www.mycoralcoast.com.au/Cervantes_Jurien.htm
. http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/hotproperty...pinnacles.html

When leaving airport, if it is from Domestic Terminal, take a right onto Eastern Hwy that becomes Great Eastern and then take the Great Northern and then Brand Highway.
If International Terminal
Head left [southerly a little] on Tonkin Hwy and then left onto Roe Highway and that'll take you all the way around to Great Northern.

If you get delayed or are feeling a bit more buggered, there's a couple of other smaller places closer to Perth, Regans Ford for possible Caravan Park accommodation and a roadhouse at Cataby with accommodation but it could be better to stay in outer Perth if greater options are sought.

hollycat

many thanks for replies, will have look through websites listed. We are now thinking of hiring motorhome instead of car as this would solve accommodation problem.

Are there many parks etc along way where we can pull in for night that would be secure.
hollycat

Bushranger

To put things into perspective a bit, I think you'll be somewhat amazed at the drive you're going to do in as much as you'll be going through sparsely populated areas and other than Geraldton [pop.~30,000] you've only got
Dongara[~2000] and Denham near MM [~1500-2000], other places along the highway being not much more than roadhouses/refueling/rest stops, the coastal bit I described giving a bit more choice.

So many places to stop there'll not be and the other thing you may find a bit amazing will be the very little traffic you'll find but whereas there will not be too many established parks, security is not going to be an issue for you and in fact we have the grey nomads that you may encounter a few of, retirees doing a campervan or caravanning/camper trailer trip around Australia and they'll often set up for an evening, [usually from about 3-4 pm.] in various rest areas, it being legal at some and illegal for others but no one is going to come around and fine you out in the middle of nowhere.

There's a book called "Camps Australia Wide" that lists free and pay for stopping options all around Australia and you may even find the Campervan hire mob may have a copy that they could photocopy a couple of pages showing differnt locations but it is not really necessary re major stopping places - the towns I've mentioned above will have secure caravan/camping grounds well signposted and keep a look out for an Visitor Information centre/map station on entering as they'll also have info.

If wanting to stop at somewhere along the way, just keep an eye out for other campers or somewhere that is far enough off the road to be safe from any passing traffic mishaps and you'll be right.

If you're still looking at options and going to MM just for dolphins experience, it is quite a drive - about 1500 km. and there is a "swim with dolphin" experience much closer at Rockingham, south of Perth and if you're planning on travelling from east coast to west coast, you can swim with dolphins at Forster/Tuncurry, north of Sydney and then there's Dolphin feeding at Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island off Brisbane.

Bushranger

Just a correction too, that drive [return trip] is more like 1700+ , that is plus any side trips you start looking at, Kalbarri for instance is about another 130 km. to add on, it being a trip across to coast and then back to highway.

travel4flowers

It is a long drive as Bushranger mentions. Most of the highway is two lanes with a few passing areas. You will also share the road with 'road trains' which are trucks with three trailers. You will want to take your time.

We drove from Perth to Kalbarri. The first day we went as far as Jurien and stayed at The Heights B&B. It is about a 3 hour drive. We stopped at Badgingara to look at the wildflowers (we were there in Sept) and I'd recommend pushing on just a bit more to stay in Jurien. It is small town but you have more choices. The hosts at The Heights were extremely nice and it was a good place to stay. Ask them for recommendations on where to eat. We ate at bar/restaurant whose name I can not remember and it was really good. It is not far to the Pinnacles. We drove over at sunset and it was beautiful.

We took our time on the drive from Jurien to Kalbarri. We were looking for wildflowers so we spent some time in Lesueur National Park. We drove the dirt backroads from Jurien to Geraldton where we had lunch at the Freemason Hotel. Then went over to the coast and up to Kalbarri. Lots of options in Kalbarri for accommodations and restaurants. We stayed at the Best Western which was very similar to every other BW in the world. For dinner - we went to Finlay's Fish BBQ which was a lot of fun. We also did several drives in the national park which is beautiful. You can also do a couple of short hikes.