After saying goodbye to Becky and Caity we hit the road for our road trip back down to Perth; this time via the more liesurly and scenic coastal route.
We ended up about 4 hours down the road in the small coastal town of Kalbarri where, after pricing a few hotels, we found accommodation in the local YHA Hostel. We got 2 beds in a 16 bed dorm; hellish sounding I know...but lucky for us we had the room to ourselves. Strange, but awesome.
There isn't much to do in Kalbarri on a Tuesday night (any night for that matter?!?) so after a couple of extraordinarily overpriced cups of tomato soup and a brief stroll we hit the hay.
In the morning we hit a nice jog along the rugged cliff-lined coast which forms one of the 2 National Parks that Kalbarri can boast to be home to. The other is a river gorge spot that apparently soars to over 50 degrees C at the hottest part of the day; so yeah...gave that one a miss.
After another ungodly expensive meal for breakfast and a quick spin through the local second hand shop looking for gear for the upcoming 80's themed Margaret River wine tour, we hit the road yet again pausing briefly at 4-5 of the most spectacular view points along the cliffs. The guy at the Hostel said he's been told they're more beautiful then those along the Great Ocean Road near our old home in Victoria...nah, dude you've been told a lie. But, pretty nonetheless.
Several more hours down the road and we pulled into the Pinnacles National Park just south of the town of Cervantes. We spent a few hours walking around the impressive Pinnacle desert snapping photos and then decided for good measure to take the rental Toyota Carolla out for a quick lap of the desert drive.
The exact way they were formed is still debatable, but the prevailing theory says that the Pinnacles are remnants of an ancient forest. Apparently the roots of the trees became petrified and then exposed many years later as the sand blew away. What remains are thousands of rock pinnacles ranging in size from quite small to well over 12 feet. They are an impressive sight and well worth the stop.
We found ourselves having done all we'd set out to do on the mid-North Coast and seeing as it was only 5pm and we were only 2 hours out of Perth where a free spot to crash with a house full of friends awaited, the decision was easy!
We made Morgan and Steph's Scarborough Beach pad deluxe in under two hours where we caught up with several members of the impending Margaret River crew. Steph threw down an amazing soup dinner and we had a few beers with her, Oli, Jamie and Laura.
A brief foreshadowing of a wild weekend to come!