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Published: November 26th 2017
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The day trip to the Pinnacles Desert from Perth was a long one, but very much worth it. As we drive on the Pinnacle Desert trail and began to see the vast expanse if these mysterious mounds, it was one of these WOW! moments. As Marion observed, this looked like another planet. Imagine a very sandy, hot desert, the kind you see in movies, then superimpose a very large number of pillar-like objects rising above it. How could anything be created this way?
Opinions still seem to differ, with two theories on how this came to be. Both involve limestone, water, trees, sand and wind. One is that the columns are essentially petrified tree trunks, remnants of a forest of about 500,000 years ago, after it got buried under drifting dunes. The other is a complex process of a forest having been buried, with dissolved and recrystalized limestone having replaced the decayed trees. We over-simplify and some geologist (Geoff?) is probably going to correct this, but you get the drift?
The furthest North we went this day was Cervantes, about 200 km north from Perth, where we had a quick picnic before realizing that we better head back so
we’d get to Perth before dark. But not before we visited Lake Thetis that is 1.5 times more salty than the oceans, and it’s a colony of stromatolites. Say what? These bacteria are akin to the earliest organisms that inhabited earth and produced oxygen and from which sprang all other life on earth. Although stromatolites existed some 3,400 million years ago (earth was created about 5,500 million years ago), those here only began to grow about 3,500 years ago. We did not find an explanation of how this Lake got started having these organisms. Another interesting bit of information is that at the bottom of the lake is a purple-coloured “mat” of this organism which, when disturbed by rains and winds, can rise to the surface and colour the lake purple. Now, Ferdy has seen such purple-coloured lakes on photography websites, unexplained by its photographers. Now here is the answer as to why they are purple, right?
Yanchep National Park is located near the town of Yanchep, about an hour or so north of Perth. It has many hiking tracks (trails), an old Inn and much wildlife such as koalas and kangaroos. Having no time left for hiking, we
Pinnacles
Reddish sands at The Pinnacles contrast with the white dunes and blue ocean and sky. took some photos and headed towards Perth. The next 55 km or so has enormous development going on, new sub-divisions and housing projects are popping up all over, making all of the area appealing for commuters to Perth. In a few more years, we imagine that Perth will become a huge urban centre.
Our hotel is in the centre of Cottesloe Beach and the restaurant and bar attached to this place is the place to be on Sunday nights here. Hundreds of young people line up outside to get some time in the bar (not so much the restaurant). Young women dressed to the nines, young men not so much, more casual in shorts and flip-flops. The Perth pickup scene we presume. Marion remembers great sunsets from her 2012 trip here. We saw an example tonight.
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Louise Smith
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Continued adventures......
What a great set of experiences you two are collecting as you travel. There are indeed strange things on this planet that defy conventional thinking. There was a pretty layer of snow on the ground today. Makes you believe that Christmas is just around the corner. xx Louise