Thursday 9th

My cousin
Trish (Bowden) phoned us early Thursday morning. Trish and Rob have a property at Williams, several hours south of Perth, and a holiday apartment at Cottesloe. Trish had
arranged for a family reunion with all her cousins to be held at Errol & Sally's home, also at Cottesloe , on Friday afternoon. They had already arrived at Cottesloe and were looking after grandchildren for the day, however we arranged to meet for dinner on that evening.

At 10.00,we headed off north to the Pinnacles , a 3.5 hour drive. I never fail to have the totally wrong perceptions of almost every place we holiday. My perceptions of the hinterland of Perth were of a city clinging to the coast with scrubby desert right on the doorstep. So what did we actually discover? For the first thirty km or so north of Perth heading toward Indian Ocean Drive, it was eucalypt forest similar to the east coast except for the dense clusters of Grasstrees (P.I. "Black Boys") . For most of the drive, 200k or so, it was in fact, coastal scrub, much like you see at West Head, North and South Head and
parts of Middle Head. Nothing much over a couple of meters high, flowering shrubs and bottle brushes. The most noticeable feature are the massive sand dunes that have been marching inland for centuries.

It’s such scrubby country up the coast that it was not of any use to the settlers and so
left unexplored. So unexplored that The Pinnacles were only opened up for tourist access in 1967, and the Indian Ocean Drive to make access easier, only built in 2010. I’m not prepared to hazard a guess at what the country is like inland of this 200km coast is like. There were stretches that appeared to have been cleared and used for farming however that’s as far as I’ll go. Our guide the following week on the Dampier Peninsular declared that everything south of the Swan River is magnificent green and everything north a desert.

The Indian Ocean Dive is basically a dual carriageway, not a motorway, with infrequent
overtaking lanes and therefore not a fast drive to The Pinnacles. We were getting a little peckish, or at least in need of a coffee after a couple of hours however the options aren’t great. 200km north of Perth is Lancelin, 6km off to the coast and 280k or so is Cervantes, 15km past the Pinnacles, again on the coast. We decided that a 12km diversion to Lancelin wasn’t a great option so pressed on to The Pinnacles. It’s a couple of km inland from the Indian Ocean Drive and when you arrive, you can see the coast not that far away but no
sign of Cervantes.

As usual, I speculated on the origin of a Spanish name for a town on the coast of a W.A. desert, however as there were no windmills or signs of delusional knights, Ches wouldn’t accept any of them. Cervantes is one of Western Australia's newest towns. It was as
recently as 1962 that the government removed 505 hectares from the northwest corner of the Nambung National Park to establish a town.

Cervantes takes its name from an American whaling ship which was wrecked off the coast in 1844. Apparently the Cervantes was anchored off Thirsty Point, the promontory which lies to the west of the town and separates Nambung Bay (to the south) from Ronsard Bay in the north, when a gale blew up and the ship was blown ashore on an island to the south of the point. The ship was not badly damaged but due to difficulty of repairs all the contents were sold on the site. The island was named Cervantes and, in 1963, it was given to the small township which had sprung up on the mainland.

The Pinnacles offered cold drinks, icecreams and chocolate so we made do with the
first two before walking along the boardwalk to the top of the ridge. There, spread out in several small valleys among the scrub were acres of the rock pinnacles.

Sighting a 'lost city’

Imagine you are sailing on the sea and checking out the coast. Suddenly you notice domes of various size in a patch of land. “A city!” it springs to your mind. Eager to explore this supposed ancient city you anchor and rush to the place you’ve spotted. But what do you find? Limestone pillars!

This actually has happened to William Dampier’s sailors who spotted these structures in 1699. While the name “pinnacle” is quite realistic, the Aboriginals named the area “Nambung” which means “crooked”. It refers to the river which flows through the park during winter.

The Aboriginal people of this region belong to the south-west region of Australia and are referred to as Nyoongar (also: Nyungar, Noongar). Nambung National Park belongs to the area of the Yuat and Wajuk language groups.

Some say that Aboriginal people avoid the Pinnacles. They think they’re fossilised ghosts, a view which might come from the open landscape which is exposed to wind and provides no place to rest. [Cherny, ‘Magisch Reisen’] However, there must have been some Aboriginal occupation as artefacts have been found which are at least 6,000 years old.

No evidence of recent Aboriginal activity could be found, indicating that the Pinnacles were exposed 6,000 years ago and then covered by sand again.

The Nambung River makes a chain of waterholes through part of the park before it disappears into a cave system - two reasons why Aboriginal presence is very likely. Waterholes and caves were common parts of everyday Aboriginal life.

Of course there’s a scientific explanation for the pinnacles. Ancient sea shells of an earlier epoch were broken down into lime-rich sands that were blown inland. Winter rain leached the lime from these sands, cementing grains of sand together in the lower levels of the dunes.

With time a hard layer of calcrete formed over the softer limestone below. Through cracks in this calcrete layer water seeped down and leached away the soft limestone.

These channels filled up with quartz sand. As the vegetation dies, erosion sets in and winds blow away the sand covering the eroded limestone. The pinnacles appear

It is highly likely that they remained hidden under sand dunes until around 400 years
ago when the dunes crept further inland. Photographs and videos don’t do them justice.
I photographed the spirit out of them. I think I photographed every pinnacle.

We spent several hours walking the desert and when we were almost back to the information
building, had to negotiate a narrow path between scrub where the last downpour
had left puddles. Gotta say that the fine red sand when wet is as sticky as a baby’s nappy. It took us 15 minutes to clean our shoes off before returning to the car.

Despite the fact that we were to have dinner with Trish and Rob at 7.00pm, we were so hungry we had to take the detour to Lancelin on the way back to Perth. What’s to say; a small fishing and holiday town on the coast with a garage that put together basic takeway. A shared toasted sandwich and a corn flake and honey patty to keep the wolf at bay.

Two stops to photograph the politically incorrect “Black Boys” (forever hereafter referred to as “Grass Trees” and we were back to Freemantle with an hour to have a 15 min. nap and change to go for dinner.

We joinedTrish and Rob at their favourite restaurant in Cottesloe. Lamonts Wine Store, a wine maker and wine distributor, they have a restaurant with tables scattered among racks and racks of wine. Rob’s first words were, “your family is in for a shock, they are all short *****, where did you come from?”

We had a very relaxed meal. The conversation came easily and we eventually discussed various bits and pieces of the family history … but that’s for the next edition of the family history book.

Entrée of whiting for me and salmon with black garlic aioli for Cheryl followed by Beef
Pie for me and beef cheek for Cheryl (all entrée sizes). Wines: I discovered a fantastic W.A. Pinot Noir. Howard Park, Great Southern, Flint Rock. As good as any Mornington Peninsular Pinot.

Back home to our cold unwelcoming apartment but with one thing right; a cmfy warm bed and
pillow.