The Pinnacles (Western Australia)

This is a difficult post. So many people used a lot of different words to describe the stone pillars you see in my picture that crystallize from the mustard-colored sand, how am I going to say anything new or appealing about them? I can only tell you how I felt in their presence, as this must be a unique feeling. I walked in the Nambung National Park, which includes The Pinnacles, with the feeling I normally have when I walk in a cemetery. I imagined that just like under each heavy stone is buried a body that one day carried a light soul, the same way under each pinnacle were buried thousands of marine life bodies, trees, and other forms of life, which one very ancient day ago thrived with the boiling spirit of nature. Of life. But unlike in a cemetery, here sand plays hide-and-seek with the remainings, uncovering them from the past (indeed, just about 6000 years ago the pinnacles were hidden under the sand) and remodeling them in the endless game with the wind (the shape and gently rounded corners of some pinnacles are the result of this game).

And as if this beauty is not enough, visit The Pinnacles at sunset, when the light palette is so rich, I was sure to be on a different planet…

Wildlife Crossing

This sign is no joke! From ducks to kangaroos, and centipedes of course included, wildlife very frequently crosses the road in Australia. Everywhere.

The three pictures were taken in Western Australia during a one week span, but the same abundance of wildlife intersecting paths with the humans is one of the signatures of Australian life.

Unfortunately, very often the wildlife crossing is in danger and gets killed, as we saw in Kangaroo Island, where more kangaroos littered the roads than jumped on the sides. My favorite picture, the one where the duck is crossing in front of the sign warning of ducks crossing, is not the best shot I could take, but is the most accurate warning I have ever seen on a road.

Western Australia Christmas

Without going back in time too much, I am posting today about my Christmas in WA. 8:30AM, breakfast at Maccas in CBD (only place open) with old pastries and the company of flies. 9:30AM, Drive from Perth to Bunbury only to find out that the Dolphin Discovery Centre was closed on Christmas day. HOPE that more tourists would convince the underwater Observatory personnel in Busselton to keep it open! Noon. Drive the 53 km from Bunbury to Busselton in the Geographe Bay. (These are coastline and beaches one would imagine the Paradise were embellished with them, so the trip and the walks were like floating in a warm and breezy white and blue land.) More disappointment… Busselton: the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere has a big lock on the ticket booth. Walk the 1.8 km into the Indian Ocean, and find another big lock on the gate of the Underwater Observatory at the end of the jetty. I have a picture of that locked gate, but found it too sad to post! I hope all Western Australians who work in these places, and pretty much all places where we wanted to have a cup of coffee or something to eat but were closed, had a great Christmas and didn’t travel to any place where they also got disappointed with EVERYTHING being shut down. My lesson: don’t travel during holidays in Australia. My Christmas tree? The gorgeous WA Christmas tree, but if you read carefully about it, it’s a parasite to avoid as much as looking for coffee in WA on Christmas day…

White Christmas? YES! Let's see if this picture tricks you, too, into thinking that there is snow in the distance, the top of it being blown off by the wind... OR this is a dune of very fine and white sand whose top is being blown off by the coastal winds?

Finally, late afternoon, back in Bunbury, two cappuccinos and a milk shake, $22.50. I don’t even want to remember the name of this café where I got so ripped off… Best Christmas day event? A true gift and memorable surprise, Orfa Turkish Bakery! Open until 9PM and making the best kebabs and rose Turkish delight!