Chasing mermaids in Shark Bay

In 1616 Shark Bay was the first part of Australia to be sighted by Europeans, says Louise Doughty in the Sunday Telegraph. But the Dutch sailors who landed there "found it so inhospitable, they turned around and went home".

Now a World Heritage Site, this remote corner of Western Australia, 620 miles north of Perth, is "one of the world's greatest marine parks". At the tiny resort of Monkey Mia, the chalet accommodation is "rudimentary", but who cares, when each morning at sunrise you can see wild dolphins come

to the beach to be fed by the park rangers, and each night contemplate "the reflection of the moon in the calmly lapping waters of the Indian Ocean".

On a catamaran cruise around the peninsula, you'll see yet more dolphins, along with turtles, and, "thrillingly, one of the ocean's shyest and rarest creatures, the dugong" (or sea cow). It's said to be the source of the mermaid myth, but when you see its hideous lumbering bulk, forked tail and bristled snout, it's hard to believe that the legend could have originated from "a creature so ugly".

Trailfinders (0845 050 5871; trailfinders.com) has 10 days from £1,379pp.