Australia
Shark Bay
Stromatolites — among the oldest living organisms on Earth — still building reefs in hypersaline shallows.
The stromatolites do not look like much — dark, humped mounds in hypersaline shallows. Then you process what you are seeing. These are among the oldest living organisms on Earth, 3.5 billion years old, still building reefs the way their ancestors did when nothing else was alive.
Shark Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site on Western Australia's Gascoyne coast, recognised for its outstanding natural values across all four criteria — one of few places on Earth to achieve this. Hamelin Pool's stromatolites are living microbial mats descended from organisms that produced the oxygen enabling animal life on the planet. At Monkey Mia, wild bottlenose dolphins swim into knee-deep water each morning to interact with visitors — a behaviour that has continued daily since the 1960s. Shell Beach is composed entirely of Fragum erugatum cockle shells, estimated at ten metres deep, stretching 60 kilometres. The bay's seagrass meadows support one of the world's largest dugong populations.
Couple
Dolphins at dawn, stromatolites at midday, a sunset on Shell Beach — Shark Bay compresses 3.5 billion years of life into a single day's experience.
Family
Dolphins that approach children in the shallows, a beach made entirely of shells, and the chance to see the oldest life on Earth — wonder at every stop.
- Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool are 3.5-billion-year-old living organisms — among the oldest life forms on Earth.
- Dolphins at Monkey Mia swim into knee-deep water each morning to interact with visitors.
- Shell Beach is made entirely of tiny cockle shells, ten metres deep and stretching for 60 kilometres.
- Dugongs graze on seagrass meadows in the bay — one of the world's largest populations.
Monkey Mia resort — watch bottlenose dolphins arrive at the beach at dawn, then eat breakfast with the view.
Denham fish and chips — Shark Bay whiting and blue swimmer crab from the World Heritage waters outside.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
Windswept dunes where the sun melts into the sea from a natural stone arch.
St Ives
England
Light so luminous it lured a century of painters to this harbour of turquoise shallows.
Tulpar-Köl
Kyrgyzstan
Alpine pools at 3,500 metres that mirror a 7,000-metre peak at dawn like shattered glass.
Philae Temple
Egypt
A temple rescued from rising waters, reassembled stone by stone on an island in the Nile.
Strahan
Australia
Cruise the Gordon River past Huon pines that were saplings when Rome was still a republic.
Maria Island
Australia
A car-free island where Tasmanian devils roam free and convict ruins crumble into wildflower meadows.
Dampier Peninsula
Australia
Red pindan dirt meets turquoise sea at Aboriginal communities where the country is still the boss.
Sydney
Australia
Ferries carve blue water between surf beaches and opera sails as cockatoos screech overhead.