Thursday 2 June 2011

Cervantes/Pinnacles Desert

After our lovely stay in Perth we moved on not really sure of which way we would go except that our direction would be north. We nearly went off the coast and in fact at the last minute returned to a coastal direction although on the maps (and you know how Sue doesn’t ‘do’ maps!) the supposed coastal road wasn’t all that close to the coast.

What a surprise as we travelled along with the ocean right by our side for a good part of the way. We were really pleased with our decision and stopped for lunch so close to the ocean that the road has partly been reclaimed by the sea and as you can see our view from the van was perfect. We would have stopped for the night except for the really clear sign which clearly indicated that under no circumstances were we to even think of it! They have obviously heard of every reason for camping and would have none of it!

As we were having a walk along the beach we struck up a conversation with a lady walking her grand  daughter of four months (sounds familiar!) who said we absolutely had to go to the Pinnacles which we had passed a little way back and that there was a lovely caravan park nearby at Cervantes. Sold!

The park was really lovely and we didn’t take much persuasion to stay especially when we were offered a voucher for the footy club dinner that night for $55.00 a couple for the best seafood platter including a lobster caught not five minutes away that day and heaps of other local seafood. When Sue reminded Ian that it was their 35th Wedding Anniversary the next day he was sold too! (I had actually remembered by the way!)

After setting up camp we went to look at the Pinnacles which were amazing and spent a couple of hours walking through the desert which is in the Nambung National Park. In this area of varying coloured sand there are thousands of limestone pinnacles, which range in size up to 5 metres tall and two metres thick at the base.

They were formed thousands of years ago when ancient plant trunks or roots formed a weak cementation of calcite within the dunes and have been exposed by wind and shifting sands. Spectacular, and truly worth the visit.

We left on Wednesday morning and drove on to Geraldton where we will stay until Tuesday morning and have the opportunity to have a good look around.



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