'I just got back from a girls' trip on Ningaloo Reef. I'm still thinking about it.'

Thanks to our brand partner, Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef

Uncontactable. One of the most beautiful words in the English language.

"Sorry, I'm off to Sal Salis. I'll be uncontactable." No meeting requests. No chattering group chats. No endless urgent-not-urgent news updates about absolutely everything.

Are you really on holiday if your Wi-Fi comes with you, with all its glorious, ridiculous, distressing distractions? Is it a break really, to spend a few days doom-scrolling on your phone somewhere pretty — rather than on the lounge, the bus, the bed?

I was uncontactable — for a little while, I was in paradise.

Sal Salis is a luxury lodge set in the Cape Range National Park on Western Australia's turquoise coast beside the Ningaloo Reef. It might be the best place in the world to be uncontactable.

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My friend Lucy and I spent four days there — and while the lack of pinging phones wasn't the highlight, it did mean we really saw the beauty and felt the peace of the place.

We went to paradise because life had been a lot. Lucy and I are old workmates who've stayed close, and she'd just come through a gruelling year of cancer treatment.

During that time, she'd dreamed of the moment she'd feel well enough to stand on a paddleboard in turquoise water. To snorkel with otherworldly creatures, swim in the warmth, hike red gorges and lie around with a book — without nausea or fear.

That moment had finally arrived. Clear scans and clear skies — we were going to Sal Salis.

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The lodge is less than an hour from Exmouth, the charming gateway to Ningaloo Reef — the largest fringing reef in the world.

A 'fringing' reef sits close to shore, and the incredible thing here is that from a long white beach edged by the pink dirt of the Western Australian desert, you can step straight into a teeming saltwater aquarium with just a few gentle kicks.

That's exactly what you can do from Sal Salis's beach — just steps from the safari tents nestled in the sand dunes, connected to the lodge by raised wooden walkways.

At night, you lie in your crisp, comfortable bed and hear waves breaking on the reef and water lapping the lagoon's pink stones just metres from your tent.

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Can we call this a tent? The walls are sturdy canvas yes, but there are wooden floorboards set on a raised platform.

This tent has a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. A bathroom with a hot shower, a wooden-framed mirror and a neat little line-up of eco products. Outside, a hammock and beach chairs on the sundeck. It's spacious but understated, and the views? Nothing but coastline.

All the things I would expect in a beautiful hotel — but in a tent.

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In the centre of all this, the lodge serves an all-inclusive delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner made from fresh local produce. There's an open bar, a coffee machine and all the tea I could drink — and all of that is included.

Lucy and I settled into a rhythm, as it's easy to do at Sal Salis — the kind that moves with nature and slows you down without trying. There would be an early morning beach walk followed by smoked salmon on sourdough and a fruit platter on the deck. Then we grabbed snorkels and towels, and joined the day's guided trip with Sal Salis's knowledgeable team.

Away from the lodge we snorkelled at four different Ningaloo spots in three days. At Oyster Stacks we swam above huge cowtail rays and watched white-tipped reef sharks glide away from us.

At Turquoise Bay — regularly voted one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (for good reason) — small blue-spotted rays zipped about in the shallows and, most memorably for me, at Osprey Bay I danced underwater with sea turtles.

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It's one of those mornings in your life you'll never forget — watching a turtle glide slowly through the warm, clear water alongside you, both of us popping our heads up at the same time to say hello. I saw tiny little neon blue fish and long skinny silver ones. Parrot fish in lurid pinks and purples, schools of silver barracuda, giant clams with purple ruffles. And all without getting on a boat — with just a mask and fins and two reassuring guides right from a range of stunning beaches.

After our guided tours, there would be lunch — perhaps followed by a game of Scrabble on the deck — and then a beach afternoon.

Beach beds with strategic shades dot Sal Salis's private beach, and time slides by like honey dripping from a spoon when all there is to do is read and doze, snorkel some more, pick up a paddle board or a kayak, read and doze and read some more.

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Around 5pm, Luce and I would get a glass of bubbles and walk along the beach as the light faded from yellow to gold and the tide washing over the distinctive pink and lilac pebbles made a tick-a-tick sound as we'd spot rays in the shallows.

By the time we were up on the deck for whatever the Sal Salis staff had decided was the appropriate signature cocktail for sunset, the sky would be ablaze and the black tips of reef sharks' fins would zip across the bay.

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Canapés and conversation would lead to dinner at long communal tables where guests swapped stories of whale shark trips and snorkelling sightings and decided whether or not they were up for the sunrise hike up one of Cape Range's stunning red gorges. One morning, we did — watching the morning stars fade as Yardie Creek Gorge sprung into life, tiny rock wallabies darting everywhere over the fossilled coral cliffs.

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And then, after dinner, it was star gazing on the way back to the tents to fall asleep to the rhythm of the water lapping across the dunes.

The peace was extraordinary. Lucy and I slowly reset, muscles gently unwinding from holiday exertion — paddling arms, flipper feet — while our minds readjusted to the quiet. There was nothing to do but be here now, in a truly special place.

On our last day, as we climbed into the buggies back to the highway and the real world, Lucy was glowing with a rare kind of peace.

Sal Salis is comfort and adventure — the kind of place that pulls you back from burnout with a simple reminder to look around: at the sunset light on the water, the strange and beautiful reef creatures going about their business or at each other, feeling lucky to share a place with others who can really see and feel it too.

Ready to experience paradise for yourself? Discover more about Sal Salis online.

Feature Image: Supplied.

With only a handful of eco-certified safari tents mere metres away from the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef, Sal Salis is the ultimate off-grid, all-inclusive escape. As a Luxury Lodge of Australia, you will enjoy exceptional service whilst you spend your days exploring the reef, swimming with gentle giants and connecting with nature. Nights are spent under a blanket of stars with good company, good food and good memories while ocean waves lap against the shore. It truly is life at its most sublime.