Feature by Carolyn Beasley

Grab your best mate, your ultimate playlist, and the strawberries ‘n’ cream, and strap in for road tripping with Daniel Ricciardo

Beyond the northern edge of Perth / Boorloo, a car approaches the 110 kilometres per hour sign. Turning to his best mate in the passenger seat, the driver flashes his winning grin.

No stranger to the driver’s seat, F1 racing star Daniel Ricciardo is taking one of the world’s greatest road trips – the Coral Coast Highway. Daniel grew up in Perth, and has returned to Western Australia to team up with his childhood bestie, Blake Mills. Ahead lies 1,200 kilometres of wild adventure, nine days of laughter, and unlimited freedom. They’ll reconnect over campfire sundowners, debate the best roadhouse snacks and be awestruck by otherworldly nature, but for now, they’re staring at the heat haze where bitumen meets horizon, and the car surges forward.

For Daniel, the feeling of escaping is almost instant.

“It sounds simple but it’s just beautifully empty once you hit that road, you get this sense of peacefulness because you feel alone, but in the best possible way,” he says. “Combine that with no phone signal and you have that feeling of being truly disconnected.”

After checking out the beachy city of Geraldton and snapping photos at pink-hued Hutt Lagoon, Kalbarri / Wurdimarlu is a worthy first stop. Here, the duo step out of the car and onto quadbikes, hitting the dirt tracks with Kalbarri Quadbike Safaris.

Starting at Murchison House Station, it’s an active way to learn about the station’s history and natural bushland along the Murchison River, downstream from the stunning Nature’s Window and Kalbarri Skywalk.

_{Kalbarri Skywalk, Kalbarri}

After dropping into the Billabong Roadhouse to replenish essentials (i.e. Tiny Teddies, Pizza Shapes and Strawberries & Creams), the friends swing west at the turnoff for Shark Bay / Gutharraguda Gathaagudu.

World Heritage-listed Shark Bay is a place of intense colours, where rusty pindan sand dunes meet clear turquoise ocean, bisected by stripes of pure white beaches. It’s a place of rotund dugongs and inquisitive dolphins, waddling echidnas and sashaying emus.

Culture is interwoven with this ancient landscape, and Daniel and Blake meet Aboriginal tourism legend, Darren ‘Capes’ Capewell of Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures. Capes is descended from Nhanda and Malgana people who have lived here for more than 40,000 years, and he starts tours by calling loudly in his language, letting the ancestors know these tourists are his guests.

_{Fish on the campfire on Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures, Shark Bay}

On Capes’ overnight camping tour in Francois Peron National Park, visitors take in spectacular Skipjack Point and the turtles, sharks and raucous cormorant colonies below. From the beach, guests cast a fishing line, catching a meal to roast over open coals. Peeling back the charred scales, the succulent fish is revealed.

Meeting Capes and sleeping under the stars leaves a deep impression on Daniel.

“His emphasis was not only connecting with each other but connecting with the land itself,” Daniel explains. “For me that is what makes Western Australia such a great destination, you just feel connected.”

Back on the road, Daniel and Blake are exploring culture of a different kind, on one of the Coral Coast’s vast working cattle stations. At Bullara Station Stay / Punurrba, close to Exmouth Gulf, travellers connect over campfire yarns, burger nights or woolshed dinners. Sunset drinks are paired with outback damper, and showers can be taken outdoors, under a hole-studded metal bucket using water heated by a wood-fired ‘donkey’.

_{Bullara Station Stay, Exmouth}

Rolling into the town of Exmouth, the gateway to World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park / Nyinggulu our travellers swap the open road for the open ocean, and pulling on a mask and fins, they drop off the back of a boat.

Nothing can prepare the friends for the moment the world’s biggest fish, the majestic whale shark, materialises from the blue like a dream. A hazy idea of a shape, almost incomprehensible in size, very quickly becomes reality, just metres away.

“I was so far out of my comfort zone when we jumped into the water, but you then see a whale shark for the first time and it’s so peaceful, it really is just a unique experience,” Daniel says.

_{Whaleshark swim, Ningaloo Reef}

Ningaloo Reef hosts the largest known seasonal aggregation of these gentle giants, with a peak in numbers between March and August each year. As the behemoth glides along near the surface, snorkellers fin along beside the shark, witnessing the sun play off its spotty body, and its gaping mouth continually filtering tiny plankton.

For the Coral Coast Highway road trippers, it’s the icing on an awe-filled cake. And according to Daniel, this trip is memorable for many reasons.

“We saw all these amazing landscapes and did these crazy activities on the trip, but just being able to spend that time together to catch up, laugh and just reminisce was really the highlight,” Daniel says.

“Obviously work takes me to some amazing places, but it’s just made me appreciate Western Australia even more,” Daniel says. “If this is a dream, don’t wake me up.”

Published September 2023.