Take Brand Highway north from Perth, if this is where you're staring from. From Brand, you may want to take a detour inland to the Pinnacles Desert to view — what else? — the Pinnacles.
Pinnacles Desert is in the Nanbung National Park which is itself a good 250 kilometres from Western Australia's capital city and needs a detour inland from Brand.
Despite its name, Pinnacles is not a desert but rather a sand dune with eerie, ethereal limestone pillars carved by the wind, some as much as four metres high.
Well worth the trip
Back to Brand Highway from the awesome Pinnacles, and the route north passes through Geraldton where Brand Highway becomes the North West Coastal Highway. (Brand and Western Australia's coastal highways are all part of Highway 1 which runs along the perimeter of the Australian mainland.)
Take the turn-off to Denham, Australia's westernmost town on the Peron Peninsula, where you might want to stay the night.
From Perth, it’s really a long way to Monkey Mia but when in Western Austalia, this pilgrimage to dolphin country is thought to be very much worth the trip.
