With Ningaloo Reef right on its doorstep, Western Australian eco retreat Sal Salis is a low-key luxurious backdrop for one of the world’s great wildlife encounters.

On one of the most remote stretches of one of the most distant coastlines in the world sits Sal Salis. At its back is the Cape Range National Park – a sheer limestone range hiding vast canyons and narrow ravines. At its front, just 50m offshore, is Ningaloo Reef, the world’s largest fringing coral reef.

It’s just outside this lagoon that hundreds of whale sharks gather every year between March and August, making it one of the best places on the planet to swim with these prehistoric fish. From August, the waters get even more crowded when the world’s largest humpback whale migration arrives, meaning that for a brief window, visitors have a chance to hop in the water alongside two aquatic giants. 

Before Sal Salis popped up in the dunes in 2009, this staggering stretch of coast was known only to workers on the local naval base, keen fishers and a few highly intrepid backpackers. Today, the eco lodge is a bucket-list regional retreat for anyone wanting to experience one of Australia’s greatest wild encounters in complete comfort. Five years ago, it joined Journey Beyond’s portfolio, alongside icons such as The Ghan.  

The low-impact Sal Salis is so well hidden in the dunes that it’s invisible from the road – it’s only when the electric buggies that collect you from the carpark turn the final corner that the sustainable glamping resort unfolds itself from the lunar landscape. The 16 off-grid wilderness tents are clustered around an open central lodge, where guests gather for meals and activities.

A generous a la carte breakfast lures everyone back each morning, as do sunset canapes and drinks, followed by a three-course meal sat at long tables with guests from around the world. Western Australian seafood features prominently in the daily changing menu; during this visit it brings a bowl of mussels braised with lashings of garlic for lunch one day, and Abrolhos scallops on a lick of pumpkin puree for starters the next night. In lieu of individual minibars, the main lodge’s help-yourself bar is available around the clock, stocked with everything from Margaret River wines and kombucha to all the makings of a margarita.

Fanned out from the central hub, each tent is angled for the best view of sea and sky, and simply equipped with a pillowy king bed facing the canvas opening, and an open-sided bathroom. Anyone whose idea of luxury is long, hot baths and marble fixtures should look elsewhere; the sturdy tents are designed to withstand the beating sun and the high coastal winds of the off-season, and leave a minimal footprint on the fragile ecosystem.

Water restrictions mean short showers, and toilets are of the drop composting kind. But watching the sky fill with stars from the hammock on your private deck is indulgence of a different kind. Because the luxury of Sal Salis is not in its trappings – it’s in the way it immerses you in this wild landscape. 

On the private beach out front, where the bone-white sand stretches on for kilometres, Ningaloo Reef creeps up almost to the waterline. Safe snorkelling times are jotted up each day on a blackboard in the lodge – so shallow is the lagoon here, you’ll put both your belly and the reef at risk if you go swimming at low tide. The 260km-long World Heritage-listed reef supports hundreds of species of coral and fish; drift-snorkelling down the beach above this kaleidoscopic underwater world leads to encounters with everything from clownfish to lionfish (best admired from a safe distance). 

Guests are encouraged to stir themselves from beach, hammocks and bar for two daily free excursions, from guided snorkelling trips in nearby coves to dawn hikes into the craggy heights of the ranges. During the communal dinners, established guests offer recommendations to newcomers. An excursion to see the sea turtle mating season at a windswept nearby beach is an eye-opening must from October; as are snorkel trips to deeper tracts of reef where turtles, reef sharks and colourful stingray dart between towering coral bommies. 

But the main aquatic event is waiting beyond the fringing reef. Sal Salis can help arrange your voyage into the depths with the tightly regulated handful of operators who hold licences for whale excursions; Live Ningaloo comes highly recommended.

Being at the whims of the ocean, nothing is guaranteed, but some of the highest concentrations of whale sharks and humpback whales in the world (as well as manta rays, sea turtles and the occasional curious dolphin) make for impressive odds of a wild encounter. While whale shark numbers start to dwindle around the same time the humpbacks arrive, in spring, lucky swimmers may encounter both in a single day. 

Seeing the world’s largest fish appear out of the depths, and swimming alongside as light plays over that immense, dappled hide, has to be experienced to be understood. But it’s worth every minibar in the world. 

Sal Salis reopens for the 2024 season from March 1 to November 11, 2024. Flights operate between Exmouth and Perth daily.