Western Australia is a huge and varied state with 12,000km of wild stunning coastline, most of it completely undeveloped.

It’s mind boggling to think that here are some of the most amazing beaches on earth, with no-one on them! You can quite honestly have a beach completely to yourself. Western Australia is so unique in that fact, if this was anywhere else in the world it’d be crammed full of people with high-rise buildings and properties popping up all over the place.

That’s why I love WA, it’s a place of contrasting colours and textures, plants and animals, land and sea. You really won’t find anywhere else like it on Earth. Here’s a look at some of my favourite coastline spots, starting with Cape Leveque in the North, travelling down to the wilderness coastline of the South West.

Cape Leveque: Situated at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula in the North West of Western Australia, it was here that I learnt to catch and cook huge mud crabs on the banks of Hunter’s Creek. After waiting for the tide to go out, myself and indigenous guide Brian Lee took our crab catching poles and hessian sacks to go get some dinner. A truly remarkable experience.

Cable Beach: One of the iconic things to do in Western Australia is a camel ride along the famous Cable Beach as the sun is setting. Rated as one of the top five beaches in the world, it’s a 22km stretch of pure white sand with red ochre cliffs on one side and the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean on the other.

Cape Range National Park: Cape Range is a place of rugged limestone ranges, breathtaking deep canyons and 50km of pristine beach. I stayed at Sal Salis, a remote beachside safari camp nestled in the dunes of the park. It’s an incredibly isolated yet stunning location, just metres from the World Heritage Ningaloo Reef. Grab your mask and snorkel for an underwater adventure you’ll never forget, or if visiting between April and June swim with the world’s largest fish, the docile whale shark.

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Howdy folks, I’m on my first Taste Mastering trip of 2014, a six hour self-drive adventure from Perth up to Kalbarri National Park and Geraldton on Australia’s Coral Coast.

One of the many highlights of the drive was the devouring of a Caltex service station award-winning pie in Dongara.

Ladies and Gents, I can honestly say this was the best pie I’ve eaten in Western Australia. It ticks all the boxes in my Good Pie Guide, deep filled, plenty of meat, real tasty, and most importantly of all HOLDS ITS FORM! No hot pie filling dripping down my arm for me, no Sir.

If you take the Indian Ocean Drive to Kalbarri you get to really appreciate the dramatic coastline and can imagine the Dutch trading ships sailing round the coast hundreds of years ago (with a lot of them not making it). There’re a lot of shipwrecks and stories out there, one of the most famous being the notorious shipwreck, mutiny, executions and punishments which surrounded the wrecking of the Batavia. Gruesome, chilling and heroic stuff.

Another in 1839 saw Lieutenant George Grey shipwrecked near the mouth of the Murchison River and having to WALK back to Perth, and that’s where we start our adventure folks. Not walking back to Perth, but at the Murchison River.

It’s a bit dry at the moment, but depending where and when it rains can change the Murchison into an unforgiving, raging torrent overnight…

…and I wouldn’t mind having this view from my window at home, it’s Nature’s Window!

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Howdy folks,

Well today’s Taste Mastering adventure sees me on a bus trip to the other-worldy, sci-fi-esque structures called the Pinnacles.

So all aboard and buckle up as we set off on the 500km round trip from Perth to explore the eerie landscape of the Pinnacles Desert.

Here we go!

Hang on a minute…why am I holding a 15 year-old 30kg wombat?

Ahhh, first stop is the zoo! Nobody told me that! Caversham Wildlife Park is a family operated business and houses the largest privately owned collection of native wildlife in Western Australia. It’s also a regular stop off on this trip. I must’ve missed the memo.

OK, now it’s time to see the Pinnacles!

So how come I end up doing this?

…Is someone playing a joke on me? This doesn’t look like the Pinnacles from the photos I’ve seen?? It looks much more like I’m holding a giant $200 Grade H 2.5kg rock lobster above my head and pointing for the cameras.

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