the pinnacles

the pinnacles desert is another australian oddity of nature. it's a place where you expect to see luke skywalker and a second sun setting, but only if you ignore the big tour buses and totally touristy people getting out of them with their cameras.

john and i ventured to the pinnacles whilst we were staying in cervantes. it's a place i'd been keen to see but had been told it wasn't worth a day-trip, more of a "stop over" kind of place. luckily, with nothing to do in cervantes, we had good reason to visit!

the pinnacles are million-year old limestone outcroppings in a surprisingly large desert about 5km off the coast of WA. there are different theories as to how the pinnacles have formed, but alas, the visitor interpretation centre was closed when we got there, so i can't really fill you in. we were told that the erosion is still happening, and because of the winds blowing sand around, new pinnacles are being discovered all the time (and old ones are being burried!) there are thousands of them, some a few meters tall, some only a few centimeters. most of them phallic looking.

in all the guidebooks (and websites), you are encouraged to see the pinnacles either at sunrise or sunset so that you can experience "the magic and wonder of the the changing landscape and colours" or something like that. so naturally we went at sunset. after paying the 15$ entry fee, we were promptly told by the toll-booth attendant that the visitors centre closed at 5pm (sunset in WA is at least 6pm). maybe i'm just being picky, but surely if you encourage people to come at sunset, you should be open until at least sunset?! and 15$ is not a cheap entry fee if all you get to do is drive around the track and walk around. bah!

the pinnacles are kind of cool though. but i'd have to agree that it wouldn't be worth a day trip (3 hours each way). and i don't think the colours were magical at sunset. they were just sand-coloured limestone outcroppings. thousands of them. in the middle of nowhere. which in itself is kind of neat.

in a nerdy, star wars way.
xo