Home Our Trip WA - Central 14-New Norcia & The Pinnacles
14-New Norcia & The Pinnacles

25thJune 2008.
At long last we're on the road again and heading off to The Pinnacles. When we reached the Brand Highway turnoff, we saw that New Norcia was only an hour or so up the road so decided to head there first. The sign jogged my memory and I remembered friends had been there and said it was something different and worth a visit.

New Norcia:

New Norcia was originally founded by the Benedictine monks in 1846 and ended up being one of the most progressive and successful missions in Australian history. Their main aim was to 'civilise' and provide a practical education to the indigenous children who were brought to New Norcia from all over the state.  For more history http://www.newnorcia.wa.edu.au/monastery.htm

The are no campsites in the area and the only place to set up camp is behind the garage @ $7.00 a night. Unfortunately there was no power and just our luck, it was the coldest night we've encountered so far on the trip, 3 degrees. Although we have a generator, it is frowned upon to run them of an evening and the gas cooker didn't really do much, so we just froze our proverbials off.  First thing in the morning, went for a 20km drive out of town with the heating on full so that we could thaw out and warm up. 

It's like stepping back in time walking around the buildings and exhibits and well worth the visit. My only disappointment was that no cameras or videos were allowed inside any of the buildings which is where the best bits are  :( 

The Pinnacles:

We headed off to the Pinnacles not knowing what to expect as we've heard both good and bad reports from awesome to a waste of time.
They don't allow caravans into the Pinnacles so had to unhitch the caravan and leave it in the car park. Don't know why, but had this image of arriving there, standing on a lookout over the Pinnacles and that would be it. We were pleasantly surprised by the size of the Namburg National Park and the mini desert.

Rising mysteriously from the dune sands are thousands of limestone pillars, an eerie contrast to the surrounding vegetation during the few kilometers drive. Unfortunately the cloudy and overcast skies didn't offer the best conditions for some creative photography, but it was awesome driving around the mini desert and seeing thousands upon thousands of pinnacles. Every conceivable shape and size you can imaging. Although pouring rain put an end to our experience, it was well worth the visit and highly recommended.

As it was raining so hard, we decided not to stay in Cervantes (the home town of the Pinnacles) and headed north to Jurien Bay where it was dry for our arrival. Woke up in the morning and it was absolutely bucketing down. 30mm of rain fell in the morning and we still had to pack-up and move on. We were at the end of the row and all the water was flowing down and accumulating around us. By 9am, it was over 100mm deep and getting worse, so eventually decided we just had to do it before it got any worse. It was freezing cold and the water was above my ankles, the wettest and worst pack-up we've had so far.

Life on the Road:

All the modifications we did to the caravan and Patrol in Perth have definitely made our life more comfortable and have made setup and packing up a lot quicker and easier.

Although most of the trip so far has been plagued by rain and cold weather, we are really enjoying the journey, the adventure and Life on the Road. It's awesome and every day brings on new challenges and adventures.
Bring it on Oz, we're ready for it.

Off to Geraldton in the morning.
 
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