Lancelin, Wedge and the Pinnacles Desert

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We had a long weekend (25-26th Jan) a while ago now which I forgot to write about but shall fill you in now.

We took the van up North to a small town called Lancelin. On the way we stopped at Yanchep National Park to see the Kangaroos and Koalas. It was boiling hot so we only walked a short way but it was nice and we hadn't seen kangas properly before and it was really cool to see them. They are so beautiful and impressive.

We made it to Lancelin in mid afternoon and spent some time in the pub garden listening to a guy and his guiter. Amazing view of the beach and very relaxing. The Australian Open was on that evening so we stayed in watching it with a bunch of pommies. I was of course routing for Andy Murray but of course Djokovich won.

We couldn't book a campsite as they were all full so risked it and camped on the beach. We had a lovely little barbie and a night time swim. We were all good and woke up to the lovely view of the beach but hung around a bit too long and got told of by the Ranger. He could have fined us $350 but let us off phewww! We hadn't left a mess or anything so I think he was being pretty lenient because of that.

We headed off for the Pinnacles that morning but stopped of at Wedge Island. Wedge is an amazing little place. Its a shack village that has been hard fought for by the local community some of whom live there some just own a shed and come down on the weekend. The council wanted to demolish it but it has been allowed to stay so long as no further development occurs. Everyone seems to have 'Save Wedge' bumper stickers on the cars.

After the short walk through the village you get to the most amazing beach. Made top 5 of the ones we've visited so far. White sand and turquoise sea with a sand bar to a small island at one end. There's a reef a way offshore and people drive down to dive here but it also means a calm sea for swimming in which makes a nice change from the beaches near Perth which are a bit rough. We walked across the sand bar and found a huge seal sunbathing on the rocks before turning back and fishing of the sandbar catching loads of Tailor. We didn't have anything to keep them in or we'd have had a feast.

After a couple of hours here, the 5 of us now quite sunburnt made it to the Pinnacles after a detour to Lake Thetis and it's Stromatolites. Known as living fossils Stromatolites, I believe they are quite rare. I don't think the others were too impressed but it's worth seeing. The Pinnacles are amazing but we drove round as it was soooo hot and we were pretty knackered. It would be neat to see them at sunrise/sunset and get some photos but they were impressive in the day either way.

After this it was the long drive home to bed. A good wee trip as Vicky would say.

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