SMALL BOAT CRUISE: Isolated Australian Coast

On the opposite side of north Australia from the Great Barrier Reef is a much less-known reef, hugging a rarely visited desert coast, offering soul-feeding beauty that is only amplified by the art of small-boat journeying.

- Ben Collins

Many Australians have heard of Ningaloo Reef, but most would probably struggle to place it exactly on the map. In many ways it is like a miniaturized version of its much larger and better-known cousin, the Great Barrier Reef, dividing the rolling open ocean from sheltered coral lagoons.

The Great Barrier Reef extends well off the relatively heavily populated north-eastern Australian coast, which is dotted with towns and cities connected by busy highways. But 3,000 miles to the west, an empty road stretches for countless miles through dusty desert, with occasional roadhouses sitting like lonely Martian settlements. It is here, more than 600 miles north of Perth—capital of Western Australia and one of the world’s most isolated major cities—that you find beauty so piercing that your eyes ache with wonder.

Ningaloo Reef is the jewel of the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area, and although at a modest 162 miles long it is petite compared to the Great Barrier Reef, it is regarded as Australia’s largest fringing coral reef.

Trailering our 19-1/2-foot double-ended Caledonia Yawl from 870 miles farther to the north was as arduous as it was incongruous. Our boat rode over 100-foot waves of sand where the highway cut through the dunes of the Great Sandy Desert.

Arriving at the small tourist town of Exmouth was like finding an oasis on the edge of the desert, and my wife and I met with the rest of our fleet, including another couple and their 21-foot Drascombe Longboat, and two mates with their 15-foot Welsford Navigator, making a miniature flotilla of three with our Iain Oughtred-designed yawl.

We mulled over our plans for the five days ahead, and contemplated the weather forecast over locally brewed beer and hot pizza.