A desert-to-sea adventure on Australia’s 'other' reef

Along Western Australia's remote coast, Ningaloo Reef offers a rare experience: a multi-day kayak trip into a world of extraordinary beauty and biodiversity.

Hovering on the surface, peering through my mask, I lock eyes with an ancient reptile. The green sea turtle lifts her head and we’re breathing together, staring; a fleeting moment of curiosity across species. Next, I ogle the stingrays. There's a carpet of them on the seafloor, buried in the sand with only their bulging eyeballs protruding. My introductory snorkelling session is dazzling – and because this is Ningaloo Reef, it all exists just metres from the beach.

Unlike the Great Barrier Reef, which is many kilometres offshore, Ningaloo Reef, Australia’s other coral masterpiece, sticks to the coast like glue. It’s called a fringing reef, and stretches for 260km along Western Australia’s windswept desert edge, where the coral begins just steps from the sand. Like its larger cousin, Ningaloo is Unesco World Heritage-listed, and like reefs worldwide, it now also faces man-made threats.

Many visitors come to Ningaloo, a distant 1,200km north of Perth, to swim with whale sharks, humpback whales and manta rays. They jump in with the megafauna from specialised tour boats in the deeper waters beyond Ningaloo’s sheltered lagoon, a continuous strip of aqua that extends 500m to 2km off the beach. But I’m choosing something slower and more immersive: to explore the lagoon itself on a multi-day sea kayaking and camping expedition, stopping to snorkel and explore channels that most tourists never see.

The reef's unusual proximity to land makes this trip possible, and the reef itself is made possible by perfect conditions.

Alamy

"There's very little fresh water runoff," explains Dr Damian Thomson, an experimental scientist at Ningaloo for CSIRO, the Australian government research organisation. "You don't see high sediment or nutrient loads coming into the lagoon areas, and that's one of the contributors to that spectacularly clear water just straight off the shore."

Ends of the Earth

Sometimes the journey is the adventure. In Ends of the Earth, we revel in far-flung destinations that are well worth the trek.

Also spectacular is the Cape Range, part of the homelands of the Indigenous Baiyungu, Thalanyji and Yinikurtura people for millennia. Running parallel to the reef, Cape Range is an ancient coral reef, thrust upwards and eroded into canyons and subterranean caverns holding aquatic creatures like the blind gudgeon fish and the Cape Range remipede that live nowhere else on Earth. Both the reef and Cape Range are Unesco listed, and a third connected ecosystem, Exmouth Gulf, is soon to be declared a marine park.

According to Neri Grieves, senior guide and manager at local tour company Exmouth Adventure Co, expedition kayaking is the ultimate way to experience the reef.

"Being right at water level, wildlife interactions are on a more personal scale," she says. "There are moments when a turtle might pop up beside your kayak for a lazy breath or a ray glides underneath your kayak. You're really slowing down; you're taking notice of things. You're becoming one with the environment around you, rather than zooming through it."

Tourism Western Australia

After the impressive introductory snorkel, we pack our kayaks full of food, water, snorkels and camping gear and slide out into the blue. The kayak is surprisingly stable; wiggling my feet on the foot pedals, I settle into the technique of the rudder steering. Our group spreads out to a comfortable distance and we cruise at a leisurely pace, the wind nudging our backs. Mostly, the gentle physicality of the paddling is meditative. 

But the Mandu Mandu channel is a different story. Here, a gap in the protective outer reef, means the swell rollercoasters into the lagoon and refracts back off the beach rock. But following our guide, we successfully let our hips roll with the kayak over the lumps and continue back into sheltered waters.

Kilometre by kilometre, I take in the empty coastline; sandy white beaches or low ridges of water-carved limestone, with no visible evidence of humans. There's a lack of human noise, too, although the reef is far from silent. An oystercatcher calls its "peep-pa-peep", an airborne fish splashes down and wave-tumbled stones rattle on a shoreline.

As we float, we watch Ningaloo's life play out around us. Dark, hovering shapes morph into cowtail rays, and we lose count of the sea turtles. A perching osprey, talons wrangling a writhing fish, is harassed by bolshie seagulls.

Getty Images

Beach landings reveal wonders, too, like the remnants of an already-hatched turtle nest. With the torn, leathery egg case in my palm, I imagine the tiny hatchling flippering across this beach, flanked by 100 scurrying siblings. Perhaps this one survived, and decades from now, it will return to this beach to breed.

While I'm on this shore, I witness a passing marine safari. Out beyond the reef edge, humpback whales are breaching, while in closer, dolphins are cavorting. Right before me, a rare juvenile shovel-nosed ray hunts for snacks.

Later, we drift snorkel, strolling up the beach before launching into the ripping currents, startling a harmless leopard shark and almost flying over a real-life aquarium of outlandish parrotfish, angel fish and neon-blue demoiselles. But it's the corals that interest me most. Historically, Ningaloo has escaped the worst of the worldwide coral bleaching that has devastated many reefs. But 2025 brought an unprecedented marine heatwave.

"Temperatures sat between three and four degrees above the long-term average for many, many months," Thomson said. "The heatwave between late 2024 and May 2025 caused coral bleaching in 60 to 90% of Ningaloo's hard corals."

The final coral mortality rate is not yet known, but Thomson says it could be around 60%. If conditions normalise, reefs can recover in five to 10 years, but alarmingly, underwater heatwaves are becoming more frequent, hampering recovery. Despite the setback, Thomson says Ningaloo is still one of the healthiest reefs in the world.

Exmouth Adventure Company

Today, I see a patchwork reef. Sections of staghorn corals have died and are engulfed by furry algae. For now, these skeletons are still providing structural habitat for many species. But the huge boulder corals at this site are thriving. There are so many fish that we trudge back up the beach to repeat the fly-over. 

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At another site just steps from the shore, a bizarre pair of eyes protrude from the reef, as if on a rubbery stalk. They're connected to a large octopus, and as I back away, the curious cephalopod edges forwards, unfurling tentacles and shifting texture and colour to match its surroundings. 

After each wonder-filled day of paddling, we set up camp in dunes behind entirely empty beaches. We witness the sun setting behind the wind-rippled lagoon, while behind us, the Cape Range fades to purple. With no light pollution and a clear desert atmosphere, we bask in the dazzling celestial exhibition that’s only possible in remote pockets of the planet. The vast belt of the Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon.

We finish our adventure at Turquoise Bay, a famous snorkelling spot. It’s busy with awe-filled turtle-spotters, squealing through snorkels and finning through a kaleidoscope of fishy wonder. Weirdly, I'm slightly affronted by their presence. I’ve slipped into the privilege of living simply and having this Ningaloo wonderland almost entirely to myself.

Exmouth Adventure Company

I think back to what Grieves told me.

"Having everything you need in the kayak brings an unparalleled sense of freedom," she said. "It also makes you realise that you don't need all that stuff you have in everyday life."

I’ve only been out here a few days, but it’s long enough to change my perception. More than an observer of nature, I now feel part of it. Time feels irrelevant, life feels stripped back and nothing else matters. It’s a feeling to cherish, and a place to be treasured.

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