Dunsborough

Keep going twenty minutes past Busselton and you reach Dunsborough, a relaxed holiday town tucked into the western corner of Geographe Bay where the coastline turns wild.

Cape Naturaliste

The road out of town ends at the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, where walking trails loop around the headland with lookouts over the Indian Ocean. This is the northern tip of the famous Cape to Cape Track — the 120-odd kilometre walk that runs all the way south to Cape Leeuwin. Even a short section from the lighthouse rewards you with dramatic coastal views.

Meelup Regional Park

Between Dunsborough and the cape, Meelup Regional Park protects a string of the state's most beautiful swimming beaches — Meelup Beach and Eagle Bay among them. Sheltered, turquoise and backed by bush, they're at their best on a still summer morning.

Whales and wrecks

From roughly September to December, humpback and southern right whales rest in Geographe Bay on their migration south, and Dunsborough is one of WA's best whale-watching bases. Divers know the town for the HMAS Swan, a decommissioned Navy destroyer scuttled offshore in 1997 as an artificial reef and one of the biggest accessible dive wrecks in the Southern Hemisphere.