I have been waiting to get to the pinnacles for nearly 15 years. The last time I was travelling up this coast line I was with a friend from Hong Kong who had come over for a spot of windsurfing. He was the driver (I couldn’t drive in those days), and he completely refused to take the teeny, tiny detour of 138Km round trip so that I could see them. Big Meany! Well, needless to say, he blew it and is around no more, and my lovely husband, happy to do anything that will make his little wifey happy, drove me all the way there with a smile.
Cervantes lies 53Km west of the highway and a few kilometres after the turn off, large banksia trees lined the road, with coral coloured flowers. Beautiful and unexpected. The banksia is named after a botanist from the Endeavour who travelled with Captain Cook on his mapping of the east coast of Australia, Joseph Banks. Nice bit of useless information for you and ‘not a lot of people know that’.
We arrived…
The pinnacles are the weirdest things. They are made up of hundreds of limestone pillars, some over 12 feet tall, some less than two, all protruding from a sandy desert. Not much is known about them, and there are 2 main theories of their origins. One is that they are part of a petrified forest, and the other…well the other has something to do with erosion and water – which makes a lot of sense, but was not too understandable to me.
There is a road around which all cars can drive. I didn’t realise this, thinking we would be able to walk around them, but driving around was pretty surreal. There were lots of stop off places along the way, and we were able to park and look at them more closely on the drive. We took turns to drive and look, and then went to the information centre and shop.
I was still completely awed, and by no means disappointed, by this quiet forest of natural obelisks, so went for a walk around them for a little way while Darren made lunch. There was a little wind and no one about as it was beginning to get hot to be out there in the desert, so I wandered around, taking pictures of the formations. A few were grouped in what looked like a circle, and others just rose out of the ground alone. It was recommended being there for sunset, as the sandy floor of the desert is a golden custard colour, however we had been too tired to get all the way here the night before, so we were there for a morning viewing that got hotter and hotter as we neared midday. As I walked back I felt strangely peaceful and somehow, clean; not hot, dusty and bothered as you would expect!
It was $11 to get in, and worth every penny (if that makes sense!). That place is a definite ‘go again’ place. Wonderful.
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