Weon

As mentioned before, we have a very early start. The alarm goes off at 6am and I wonder what on earth is likely to be worth getting up this early for. As the sleep subsides I remember - the Pinnacles at sunrise. Bleary-eyed we pile into the behemoth to drive the 15 minutes to this natural wonder. In case you are wondering, the Pinnacles are limestone formations that are standing tall, in stark contrast to the rolling golden sands around them. The theory is that they were formed when trees rotted away and the holes were filled with matter that became the limestone, and then the surrounding ground was eroded.

When we arrive the sun is still below the horizon and the temperature is still below 10 degrees. I wondered why on earth we made all the effort to come in this early, they are only bits of rock after all. Then the sun poked it's head over the horizon and we are bathed in the orange glow of dawn, changing the rock from oddly shaped menhirs into tongues of flame reaching for the sky. It was simply awesome.

I went a bit shutter crazy and took far too many photos but I had to make sure I had as many good shots as possible as the sun was climbing quickly and the light was getting brighter and whiter. Olly drove us round, stopping every now and then to take photos until our fingers were frozen and we were forced back into the behemoth to thaw out.

Having had our fill of this wonder, we head back to the motel (via Hangover Bay which was quite underwhelming) for a belated breakfast and shower before hitting the road again. We are heading further north for our final stop in our Australian extravaganza. As we pop out onto the freeway we pass a signpost stating that the next town is 47km away and the next nearest one after that is 470km - man this country is huge! We also pass road train after road train, the longest of which had three trailers - it was the most enormous road-going vehicle I have ever seen (even bigger than the behemoth)! We stop for lunch in Geraldton and then hit the road to Kalbarri again.

We pass a sign for a scenic route to Kalbarri so I quickly do a U-Turn and head that way, hoping for some fantastic scenery and no more enormous road trains! I was lucky on both counts. The oddest but most rewarding sight was the pink lake which does exactly what is says on the tin, it is a lake full of pink water. What makes the water pink is the algae living in it, but I prefer to think that it is simply full of strawberry milkshake.

We finally arrive in Kalbarri and are greeted by a swarm of dragonflies, so many in fact that Anne refuses to get out of the car at the viewpoint on the outskirts of town! Olly and I take some photos and then we head into the town centre to find our apartment. As has now become the norm, Anne has come up trumps with our accommodation and we are all suitably chuffed. By now we are all pretty cream-crackered and so after Olly and I have prepared a feast of hot dogs (move over Jamie Oliver), we watch some TV and then head for bed.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Friends/Family, Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.