Koalas, 4WD and Pinnacles Desert

Wednesday 20^th October

Shock, horror! Woke up to grey skies. Rain was forecast, but we were optimistic. We were booked on an organised tour, not what we usually do, but as it turned out, it was brilliant.

 

First stop, Caversham Wildlife Park, where we met some very sleepy koalas. Marg reckons she was a koala in a former life because they sleep for up to 20 hours a day!

Kangaroo feeding next. The kangaroos were lovely, very friendly and gentle – even when taking food from our hands.

The star of the show was Big Bubbs the wombat. She weighed 40 kilos – all muscle apparently ( we were told not to mention the “fat” word! )

 We were wrong to be optimistic about the weather because we drove through torrential rain between Caversham and our next stop, Lancelin. Luckily the rain stopped in time for us to transfer to 4WD vehicles to drive through huge, white sand dunes. Forget any images you have of British sand dunes (even Merthyr Mawr) because these dunes stretch for hundreds of miles alongside the Indian Ocean. It was an amazing experience but due to the bumpy ride, impossible to capture on camera.

 After that, we waxed down our sandboards and climbed to the top of a particularly steep dune – it didn’t take as long to get back to the bottom. Brilliant! There’s no photo of Paul on his board because he was too fast for the camera!

Back on the coach for the journey along the Indian Ocean Drive to Cervantes, where we had a picnic lunch. An idyllic spot, and the sun finally came out ( but you can see from the sky what it had been like).

  

By the time we got to Nambung National Park it was sunny and warm – perfect for exploring the Pinnacles desert. Thousands of limestone pillars rise out of the orange sand. It is an amazing place and our party of 40 had the whole area virtually to ourselves.

From here it was a little over 2 hours to get back to Perth, spotting wildlife such as kangaroos and emus along the way. Best moment was when our driver gave a yell and pulled the coach over – right alongside 2 wedge tailed eagles who were having a spot of dinner. They looked a bit put out, stared at us for a moment and then flapped away over the bush. They are Western Australia’s largest bird of prey and were magnificent.

A great day to end our stay in Perth,

Tomorrow – Uluru.