Pinnacles Desert, Western Australia

While we were on the west coast of Australia, we took a day trip from Perth up to The Pinnacles, in Nambung National Park.  It was a long, but peaceful drive, with beautiful scenery along the way.  It fell in line with much of our adventures in Western Australia, in that it was not nearby but close enough to reach as a day trip.  And when you’re that far away from everything else, you might as well see what there is to see. After all, you may never make it back this way.  We had read about how interesting and beautiful it was to photograph, and decided to plan it for maximum photo opportunity by planning to arrive for the afternoon “golden hour.”  On our way out we swung by the Aquarium of Western Australia (known as AQWA, that’s another post) and then ambled up through a pretty barren landscape for a couple of hours.  At first they don’t look like much, just a few rocks sticking up out of sandy desert.

But then the light began to get really pretty, and the rocks began to cast some interesting shadows, and well, we took a lot of photos.  We had to restrain ourselves a bit in the ones we actually ended up posting, but here is the cream of the crop.

You can’t really see it in this picture but the wind was fierce, stinging us by whipping the sand up at us.

This looks like something from a car ad until you see Lana reading in the passenger seat.

We drove around the circuit a few times trying to get the best of the light, choosing our angles and such.  It was fun.

Eventually the wind was just driving sand at us, trying to erode us as it does the surrounding landscape, so we got back in the car for the ride back to Perth. 

We got a last little photo treat as the sun set over the Indian Ocean.  Driving home in the dark as we kept an eye out for kangaroos crossing the road, we both were hit by amazement in where we were, how very far we had come, and how very lucky we are to have been there.