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Published: December 22nd 2005
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Pinnacles desert
I'm always tempted to add an extra s in desert, but that would be daft coz then it would be dessert, and you can't eat these rocks so that would be wrong. Innit. Back to Perth eventually after a mammoth drive from Kal and Wave Rock. Knackered, we found our hostel remarkably quickly and checked in to find that it was pretty fabbo. Governor Robinsons it is called and is situated in the funky part of town (sorry, city!! I keep forgetting) called Northbridge. It had - and I kid ya not - SMEG cookers. Now this is pretty unheard of in hostel land. Also, the building itself is renovated from two old town houses, and they have kept all the gorgeous stained glass etc. Just lovely - we can recommend if anyone out there is thinking about coming to Perth. I think they do ensuite rooms aswell, but to be honest the bathrooms are a-plenty and they are v nice too.
So - we spent a couple of days in Perth, rehiring Tony ( we couldn’t bear to leave him) and trying to get in touch with our pal Jess who was rushing around like a mad man, having discovered that his moving in date for the new house he’s buying had been brought forward by a month. Jees Louise! We didn’t manage to catch him, unfortunately, but we had a lovely
More pinnacles
This one looks like a side on view of Skeletor from He Man, Master of the Universe. But where is His cat? What was its name again? Thundercat? Nope, that was something else.Answers on a postcard. Do you remember though, that when He Man became He Man, the cat changed aswell,and He Man used to ride on his back? lunch and chat with his great neighbours Vernon and Regina who are just about to have a wee baby boy. Vernon’s from Goa and he made us a totally magic Indian dip thing, which he swears only has blended fresh coconut, coriander (green plant kind not dried brown stuff) and green chilli. If I were any of you reading this I’d recommend that you give a bash to knocking some of this stuff up is it is the BEST ever dip for naan bread or even spread for sandwiches (esp with chicken & tomoatoes).
Other than getting organized for our next road trip up north, and lounging, catching up on emails etc, we took things pretty easy for the 2 nights we had in Perth.. Went out for a drinky in Northbridge one night and saw some fabo rock and roll dancing going on at this sports bar - it was excellent. There were all these professional dancers (well, they looked professional to us) strutting their stuff like there was no tomorrow, and it was such a funny thing when this office crowd turned up pissed and started joining in with their ‘’dance like yer dad’’ moves. Some things
happen just the same regardless of whether its Perth Aus, or Glasgow!! Alan and I were going to get up and show everyone how to do the dancin’ proper likes, but refrained as we felt sorry for everyone who’d obviously put years of practice into honing their skill. It would have been embarrassing for them so we just stayed seated and had a couple of…..the most excellent drink on tap…. Bundaberg Rum! Sara - if you’re reading this - Bundaberg Rum is your dream come true. Its dark rum with cola, premixed and available on tap at about 5% alchohol, so you never get a short measure. It comes in cans too by the way, and is available with ginger beer added, or lime. Delishamundo!
We headed off up the coast early on Saturday morning, heading for a place called Cervantes. Cervantes is the nearest little town on the West Coast, to another amazing rock formation called The Pinnacles. Now, some of you might have already seen the Pinnacles on TV, when Billy Connolly visited them and apparently ran through them naked. Not sure why he would have done that, but there you go, that’s the kinda crayzee
stuff he does, man! As per Wave Rock, I might cheat here again and use flyer info explaining formation jargon, however not like Wave rock, we were totally blown away with the experience of driving thorough these amazing natural mini hills which look to the untrained eye like termite mounds. You’ll see from the photos how wonderfully unusual and interesting they are, and the day we went they looked extra cool, as there was a bit of cloud cover which added an extra dimension of interest in the ever changing shadow patterns which formed on the sand which supports them. We thought this would be a perfect location for filming a Doctor Who episode, or maybe Star Wars if they do any more of them, which they wont, so never mind. Phew!
Pay attention now, here comes the science! (Readers voice: who let Jennifer Anniston in?)…….The pinnacles desert has thousands of limestone pillars, up to four metres tall, rising out of a stark landscape of yellow sand. Some are jagged, sharp edged columns, rising to a point; others resemble tomb stones. What exactly are the pinnacles? The raw material for the limestone of the pinnacles came from sea shells
in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime-rich Sands which were carried inland by wind to form high, mobile dunes. Winter rain leached the lime from these sands, cementing grains of sand together in the lower levels of the dunes. Vegetation became established and stabilized the dunes. At the same time, an acidic layer of soil and humus developed over the remaining quartz sand. This acidic soil accelerated the leaching process, and a hard layer of calcrete fromed over the softer limestone below. Today, this calcrete can be seen as a distinct cap on many pinnacles and has helped protect the softer limestone below. Cracks formed in the calctrete layer and were exploited by plant roots. Water seeped down along these channels to leach away the softer limestone beneath. The channels gradually filled with quartz sand. This subsurface erosion continued until only the most resilient columns remained. The pinnacles as we see them today were exposed by prevailing winds blowing away the overlying quartz sand.
If you’re still reading this, then well done. They say that every day is a school day, and I think we’ve just proven that, no?
OK,
Big rock
Don't ask why - we just liked it, OK?! I’m off for a coffee - that was hard work all that rock malarkey stuff that was!!!!!!!!!
Byee,
Shaz & Alan. xxx
ps - we got our first parking ticket at Scarborough beach just outside Perth. We were raging.
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Gaz
non-member comment
Jees, I need to escape from sci-fi geek type here- but the cat was called Cringer and became Battle Cat when going radge. So there. xx