The beauty of stark, natural places always has the same effects on me. I feel small against the greatness of a mountain or the vast emptiness of a plain; I feel inspired by the layers of rock in a canyon, where erosion exposes millions of years of history. I feel awed in the least trite sense of the word. The Pinnacles Desert has that affect on me.
Alongside the Indian Ocean, wind-blown sand formed dunes that gradually shifted along the beach, covering plants as they moved. Water in the vegetation combined with sand to form limestone, turning the plants into something like concrete. When the wind moved the dunes further along the coast, the limestone spires-- from a few inches to as tall as seven feet--remained behind.
The blue Indian Ocean is to my left. The sand as fine as powder is under my feet. And as far as I can see, the pinnacles spread across the beach. The effect is eerie… like a yellow limestone city set against a hazy blue sky, waves crashing to the shore, some scattered vegetation highlighting the bright beach, and the only people in sight are the few that came with me. In the distance, an emu, ungainly and comical looking, races among the pinnacles, its large oval body on ridiculously skinny, long legs.
I take this all in for a while. My guide hands me a small piece of limestone that broke off a pinnacle; I remember learning, Take only pictures, leave only footprints. " To my surprise, he doesn't seem to think that way.
The drive back to Perth is not along the paved road we used to get here, but on a bump-and-smash along the beach on a trail blazed by other four-wheel drive vehicles paralleling the shore. The Indian Ocean is the bluest water I have ever seen. I see more boxing kangaroos, and they still make me laugh. For a short stretch of road, we see two emu ahead, and then they race alongside us at about 30 miles per hour until we pass them. I don't have my own video but you can see emus racing along a road: tinyurl.com/runningemus . I dare you not to laugh.
There’s a fox, a non-native animal imported here from England for traditional English hunting. He’s got a joey (a baby kangaroo) in his mouth. :(
Rugged, rough and breathtaking and barren-- and we see no people or vehicles for miles. And suddenly the city looms ahead and we’re back in Perth.
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