The Pinnacles & Jurien Bay
At 7am, 2 Scandinavian girls and I were the first ones to be picked up on the Western Xposure tour. They were both from my hostel, and would be staying with the tour until Exmouth. It was raining in Perth 
this morning. I snagged a single seat in the front and we then proceeded to pick up the remaining passengers. Our guide is Ben, a friendly Aussie around the age of 30.
You never know who you’ll end up with on these tours. In this case, there were 16-18 of us, and it was quite a mix: some older folks, but mostly younger people, including 3 Japanese girls and lots of Europeans, and a Canadian couple. A lot of our group would be getting off around Exmouth, and almost all who were continuing on toward Karijini would be getting off at Broome. So if this group ended up being meh, at least I knew we’d be getting new people as the tour went on.
Leaving Perth, the rain subsided and we soon began driving through lots of flat green land with scattered bush. In the distance were often hills and some farmland with cows and sheep, and the occasional house or two. Basically there was nothing there. But sometimes you could see the Indian Ocean beyond the land, a deep blue color with white waves crashing. Beautiful. We made periodic stops at roadhouses; the first had a $4 coffee&danish deal. It was a great buy – the danish was delicious! I was quite satisfied.
We finally arrived in Cervantes, home of Nambung NP and the famous Pinnacles desert. By this time it was bright and sunny. We only spent like a half hour there, which I felt was not enough! The desert was really neat, very yellow with soft sand and hundreds of “pinnacles” all around. The area used to be underwater before giving way to an area of vegetation, and ultimately left all the pinnacles there. At some places, you could see the deep blue ocean just beyond the yellow desert, along with some white sand dunes. I really liked the Pinnacles, I just wish we’d had more time to explore there.
But alas, today was a day for driving. This tour has a few days where we mostly just drive, and then a few days that are mainly spent at the attractions. We ate lunch at Jurien Bay, a BEAUTIFUL beach with white sand, 2 docks, and bright blue water. So stunning!
Our other main stop was near Geraldton at some big white sand dunes off the road, where we went sandboarding. I wasn’t going to try it, for fear of scratching my eye for a 3rd time. Plus, I realized there was something wrong with my camera, as a mark kept appearing on every frame. But I ended up going anyway – it was fun, but not amazing. The view at the top was great, you could see the tops of the other dunes and the ocean just behind them, with the sun beginning to set. Sandboarding was basically just sitting on a snowboard with your hands in the sand slowing you down as you glide. It wasn’t scary. I enjoyed just admiring the pretty dunes more than I liked the boarding, but I’m glad I tried it.
Sunset was beautiful! We were still driving, but since we were so close to the ocean and it was all wide-open land, we got to see the sunset progress. The sky turned rainbow colors, and the sun descended through the clouds, beaming outward. Incredible.
We arrived at Kalbarri Backpackers at 7pm and dropped off our bags in 2 big dorm rooms. There were 10 girls and 9 beds in the room, so I ended up in the guys room. We had chicken/veggie stirfry for dinner and then watched Armageddon on tv.
