Pinnacles Desert

Saturday, six of us signed up for a day tour that covered an area north of Perth leading to the Pinnacles Desert.

We were picked up right outside our dorm at 7 am to begin. We started in Perth and traveled north east to the monastic town of New Norcia. New Norcia is the only monastic town in all of Australia, and at its peak also included a boys and girls school as well as a functioning orphanage.

In the 60s, the enitre operation fell apart and the schools and orphanage ceased operations. There are still Benedictian monks living there, and mass is still offered in the abbey. It is in such a remote and desolate area, however, that with the empty buildings and lack of life around it, it seems like a ghost town- although the exteriors are relatively well kept up.

Only the residence has any life, as well as the church- which was about to hold Mass when we arrived.

It is one of the very few instances of Spanish architecture in all of Australia, as the Spanish had very little contact or influence in the history of Australia.

We had "morning tea" in New Norcia, and then we proceeded to get back on the bus and proceed north-west towards the Pinnacles.

The next stop that we made as at the Western Wildflower Farm. It was there that we recieved a tour of the facilities, as well as lunch. The farm ships wildflowers all across the world, and is a very profitable enterprise. The only downside to it is the utter remoteness of the location- and therefore the inability to get much help. We were allowed to take pictures of some of the warehouse storage units. Unfortunately, wildflowers are not in bloom in the fields at the moment because it is the end of summer here, rather than the early spring. Lunch was a nice buffet spread, and was enjoyed while the six of us had a nice talk with our driver/guide.

Our next stop was the rock lobster fishing town of Cervantes. It is certainly not a big town, and is almost only populated by fisherman during the summer months when they are doing thier fishing. It was explained how during the cooler winter months, almost everyone is completely gone.

They have a nice white-sands beach and dunes there, and the water of the Indian Ocean glitters and shines. This is due to it being filled with the organisms that make coral, but the moving water prevents the coral from actually combining and forming.

Finally, our last stop was the Pinnacles Desert. The desert is a place that is completely unique and is the only place in the entire world like it. It is currently in the process of being recognised as one of the Natural Wonders of the World.

In the great expanse of the desert, large rock pinnacles protrude from the sands in every direction the eye can see. They completely cover the landscape- much in the way that stalacmites come from the floor of a cave.

From some of the pictures it is hard to tell how tall or short the pinnacles are. Most range in height from 6-15 feel high. It is often easier to tell when a person is in the picture.

The amazing thing is how they were formed. Epochs ago, the land used to be a swamp, that was wet and filled with trees, and the roots of these trees went deep into the ground. After many years and a climate shift, these roots fossilized and became limestone. The trees were gone, but the fossilized roots were far below the ground. Over a long time, the winds blew away the sandstone above the roots and the fossilized roots as limestone appeared. Each of the pinnacles are limestone- and are the fossilized remains of treeroots. It is very neat, because if you look closely at some of them you can see the root formations.

The sandstone above is what gives the desert its reddish color around the pinnacles. This differs greatly from the great white sand dunes near Cervantes that are visable from the higher points of the desert. It is amazing to me that such a dry and hot desert can be located so close to the great expanse of the ocean. From the higher elevations of the great expanse of desert, the ocean is clearly visable.

Kevin brought up a great point when he thought aloud how the first Dutch settlers must have reacted for the first time when they brought their ships in off of the Indian Ocean after a long voyage from the Netherlands, and in a search for water, wandered into this alien expanse.

The area is very taboo for Aboriginals, and they did not and do not journey to the place. It was very very hot, just under 110 in the desert and there were lots of flies. There was very little wind, but what wind there was had a very warm feel to it.

Kevin noted, but we all agreed, that the best part of the desert is the freedom allowed to visitors. In the United States, there most likely would have been a path with guard rails and a trail to follow and walk through a small amount of the area. Here, coversely, there was a welcome center for the fact that is is part of the Nambung National Park, and they asked you not to climb on the towers. Other than that- they said good luck and don't get lost over the great expanse.

The welcome center was great relief to us after we explored for about an hour, as it had airconditioning and sold ice cold water. We were all a little dehydrated and relished the opportunity for a cold drink.

The place is very eerie, and if you took away the little bit of green plant life that can be seen, it is exactly how I imagine the surface of Mars looking. It is very much like being transported to an alien world.

After the desert, we got back on the bus and prepared for our 300km trip back to Fremantle. We arived back at the dorm a little past 8pm. After getting back I tried to rally to go out with the rest of the people we met back up with, but I just could not. I even made it to the train station, but had to turn back out of sheer exhaustion. I ended up sleeping for about 13 hours, and drinking a lot of water.

It was a great day, and the Pinnacles Desert was completely worth it.