Anyone looking at today’s weather forecast for Western Australia would have thought the sensible thing to do would be to rug up and stay home. My weather app screamed of severe weather alerts … heavy winds and lots of rain. But Annie, our friend from our time in Cali, Colombia, came all the way from North Carolina to visit, and Padma and I wanted to show her around our State.
We took our chances and pointed the car to the north for a day trip. The rain stopped just as we approached Yanchep National Park and Annie got to see some kangaroos and koalas up close. We thought we had the entire national park for ourselves until another car showed up. The new visitors got out to see the koalas and I shouted ‘Hey John!’. We don’t know many people in Western Australia but there on that rainy and windy day in a national park we found our friends from our Syrian days, John and Freddie Hamblin, who were doing the same as us … showing overseas visitors the sights.
The rain started again so we drove a couple more hours to the north till we arrived at the Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park. As we drove up to the rangers station a squall hit. I rolled down the window while the ranger shouted something at me. I nodded my head and said, OK OK. Padma asked what she had said. I didn’t have a clue. The wind and rain were blowing so fiercely and horizontally that I couldn’t hear someone a metre away.
We ate our lunch in the car as the squall passed and I wondered if the ranger had said a cyclone was on its way. The rain stopped for a moment (but not the wind) so we dashed out to see the Pinnacles. As we crested a small hill, we saw the Pinnacles before us and we all said WOW in unison.
The Pinnacles are natural limestone structures, formed approximately 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. As we learned in the visitor’s centre, scientists aren’t exactly sure how they formed. The Pinnacles dotted an area of orange sand which made the whole scene look alien. We were able to walk amongst them and for a moment we saw some blue sky. But then the heavens opened again, and we dashed for the car.
On the drive home we stopped and visited Hangover Bay and some roadside sand dunes while the rain stopped and started.
At the sand dunes of Lancelin, I tried to get out and couldn’t open the door due to the fierce wind and had to position the car so I could open it on the leeward side. I managed to snap a few pics before my eyes filled with sand.
Despite the constantly changing weather we all agreed … sometimes it’s best to just hit the road despite what the weather forecast says.