Cervantes and Perth

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Our last stop on out Greyhound west coast trip was in the very windy Cervantes! The main attraction here is the spectacular sight of the Pinnacles - hundreds of limestone formations, which cover an enormous area (can't remember exactly how big and I won't guess because I tend to exaggerate when I guess numbers!). The first Europeans to sight them thought they must be the remains of an ancient, Atlantis-type city and the local Aborignal people believe that they were formed after a huge war between tribes where all the dead bodies were turned to stone afterwards. Science (always keen to spoil everyones fun) tells us they're formed by a cycle of wind, sand, rain and vegetation over thousands of years, which isn't nearly as interesting! Nevertheless, Dianne our tour guide, took us and four other Pommies to explore the Pinnacles for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. All the different shapes mean you can stare at them and see all kinds of different shapes, like clouds. We saw lizards, elephants, camels and Snoopy to name but a few, and not mention the rude ones at all. The tour was timed perfectly to end with the sunset, but it was a bit cloudy so was nothing too amazing in the end! We'll probably put a picture on anyway though, as we don't have much else to show you!

There isn't much else in Cevantres so got our final bus the next day to take us back to Perth. The whole town is very busy right now because the school holidays just finished so everyone without kids is now on holiday! We ended up booking a hostel that didn't look to hot from what we'd heard but kept our fingers crossed anyway. We obviously didn't cross enough though, as the plae was worse than we imagined.

NEVER, EVER STAY IN THE PLANET INN IN PERTH EVER. EVER!

Now we've got that off our chest, we'll justify it: the advert said they do a free pickup from the bus stop etc, when we arrived and called they firstly denied our booking (made through the internet with deposit paid) and then eventually said they'd squeeze us in but couldn't come and get us because no driver was available. When we got there this seems to be because he was really drunk, which at least explains the awful phone manner! The dorm itself was filthy and we came back in the evening to find it full of drunk people who weren't staying there who'd chucked our stuff around and were sprawled across Luke's bed. They came in and out all night, turning lights on and off and being really abusive to one guy who was asleep that they may or may not have known. (Now we're not there, we don't really care either way).

The one plus point of this was that it made us go out and stay out for the day, which gave us an opportunity to sample nearby Fremantle for the day. It's a quite trendy little port town outside Perth with great markets, bars and restaurants and we nicely sampled all three, especially the micro-brewery bars! We met some great people down at the Little Creatures Brewery: a really friendly family who bought us a beer, but who we then realised had left without paying the bill (although we're fairly sure it was unintentional!); and a party of Aussie travellers who were in Europe a while back and now exploring their own lands. We might just meet up with them again before we leave WA, so maybe more on that next time!

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Photos

Pinnacles
Pinnacles through a pinnacle!

Pinnacles
Another sunset! Sorry!

Pinnacles
See what we mean about the shapes...this one looks just like Laura!

Pinnacles
Super windy! Not very clear in the pic, but we felt like we were in a full on sandstorm!