Nature's palette

Flashing across the water at close to 90km/h, the inflatable is urged along by twin 225-horsepower engines. A section of swell looms and well-salted passengers hold on tight, their legs working like shock absorbers as the boat leaps from crest to crest. They don't call this the Aqua Rush Tour for nothing. The ride is taking place in beautiful Shark Bay, off the most westerly point of the Australian mainland.

With its more than 1,500km of coastline, Shark Bay is one of those places that reinvigorates the passion of the world-weary traveller. If you've not visited, imagine a place where sea, sky and desert meet to create a perfect trinity of turquoise, blue and orange.

The folks at Unesco were obviously impressed. In 1991, Shark Bay became one of the few places to be heritage listed under all four of the organisation's 'natural' categories, including for its beauty.

Despite all it has going for it, though, Shark Bay is known primarily for Monkey Mia, the resort town 850km north of Perth where you can feed dolphins.

But there is much more here. Such as the Aqua Rush Tour, for instance. It's not always thrills and spills, though. If the sea is flat it's actually quite a smooth - albeit rapid - ride. And guide Greg Ridgley slows down to take in the sights.

The six-hour tour begins from Denham (the main township, about 30km from Monkey Mia) and heads 18 nautical miles out to Dirk Hartog Island, the northern tip of which saw the first confirmed evidence of a European on Australian soil.