Heading South and East

Pink Lake, Pinnacles Desert, Endless Wheat Fields, Wave Rock

Our next excursion was into the interior--the bush--tho the territory was mostly agricultural. Vast wheat and canola acreage--seemingly endless in all directions--now just stubble, dotted by a few large gum trees. The coverage is vaster than anything I've seen in the US midwest. It's hard to imagine how they manage to plant or harvest or transport it all. But somehow they do. We saw several quarter-mile-long, 2-story, tarp-covered storage structures at railroad sidings presumably full of wheat or canola seeds. 

And everywhere there are flocks of hundreds of sheep.

But I get ahead of myself. Our first stop heading south along the coast was back past Pink Lake where we had a windy breakfast. I mentioned this mining area lagoon earlier on our way up to Kalbarri. Its water is bright pink.

John's shot of the Pink Lagoon as a short squall moved through


My shot of Pink Lake lagoon

Next we turned off Hwy. 1 and continued down another remote ocean highway to another popular national park attraction--the Pinnacles Desert.

Pinnacle tombstones

Conical or stele-shaped rocks surrounded by yellow sand are otherworldly and give the appearance of a graveyard with thousands of tombstones from an alien massacre. Scientists don't agree on exactly how the pinnacles were formed. They know they are limestone from ancient seashell deposits, concreted by calcium carbonate, probably eroded by wind and weather. One theory I like is that they were sand-covered tree trunk hollows which slowly filled with calcium and lime and turned to stone.

Pinnacles Desert

Before the long drive inland thru the wheat and canola fields to Wave Rock, we spent a night at the ocean town of Lancelin, drove down to Perth to extend the car rental, killed some time at Perth's beautiful Scarborough Beach, then headed east for 340 kilometers. We decided to shop for food and wine later (it was very hot and we had no means of refrigeration), but we learned too late that the only bottle shop for 200 miles was in the one-horse town of Brookton--at a short counter out of the back door of the only tavern. Oh well, it all worked out. On to 2 nights in Hyden in a cute little "short stay chalet," where we ID'd a new bird--a currawong.

A found-objects artist in Hyden created an outdoor sculpture park. Our favorite was the sparkplug echidna.

Wave Rock is another geological wonder, a 2.7-billion-year-old granite cliff formed mainly by water erosion. It's part of a larger granite formation similar in a way to (but smaller than) Uluru which is sandstone.

John standing below Wave Rock

Another view of Wave Rock, 15 meters tall and 110 meters long, part of Hyden Rock which is over a kilometer long.

Next up, Margaret River wine country.

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