The Pinnacles, Nambung National Park, Western Australia - 23rd December 2009

It had been well over twenty years since Sam and I first visited Perth, on that visit years ago I'd promised her that she would visit the Pinnacles next time we were in the area not realising that the ducks wouldn't fall into line until this trip. So, with me being a man of my word, Sam eventually got to see the amazing Pinnacles.

Checking out the Stingrays at Cervantes.

Unfortunately I didn't have my water proof camera with me.

Sam's not so sure.

We decided to head up from Perth on a day trip, with our usual tardy start it was after lunch when we pulled up at Cervantes for something to eat. Going down for a walk on the beach we were amazed at the number of stingrays cruising up and down the gutter just off the beach, I didn't have a waterproof camera with me so the photos just show a dark blur in the water but trust me they were stingrays. After checking out the aquatic wildlife for a while we decided we better head out to the park.

Check out my hardcore hiking foot ware.

The Pinnacles are in Nambung National Park and are a vast calcified forest of limestone formations, to me they give the appearance of a calcified army frozen in time, some of the pinnacles reach 3.5 metres in height. We took a drive around the sandy track through the dunes and then parked and set off on foot.

I was wearing suitable bush walking attire, bare feet, so I had to be a little careful not to stand on any of the sharp 'mini pinnacles' protruding from the sand. Being late afternoon by now we were able to catch a little wildlife including some Emus and Galahs, and the late afternoon sun also helped add a bit of colour to the photos. With the sun setting into the Indian Ocean we started to head back to Perth, crossing the new coast road that was sealed but not open, we instead backtracked out to the Brand Highway and then trucked on down to Perth, getting back around 10 pm.

Not sure what the Galah lives on.

The Dirt.
I used the notes from 40 Great Walks in Australia by Tyrone Thomas, its walk # 27 in his book. We walked about 5 kilometres, the walk basically follows the tourist drive so you could see most of the attractions by car however its definitely more enjoyable to wonder around the sand dunes surrounded by the pinnacles, its definitely an easy walk though. The only potential issue is that it can get bloody hot and there's no shade. We did over 600 kilometres driving for the day going up and back, the new Indian Ocean Drive would cut quite a few kilometres off that though, or you could always stay at Cervantes.

The late afternoon sun was the best for the photos.