JURIEN BAY

Sep 11 -14

What a lovely surprise this little place is - turquoise blue sea inside a fringing reef, small islands just offshore where sea lions live, a wonderful fishing jetty and a large kids' playground on the beachfront. The caravan park was right at the beachfront, with quite comprehensive shopping centres on either side of the park. The weather was cooperative – warm and sunny.

We took the opportunity to take a day trip out to see the Pinnacles. We first took a detour to see the stromatolites. These are different from the ones at Hamelin Bay.

After that, we visited Cervantes and had our taste of rock lobster at the factory there. It was a bit of a disappointment. We prefer the crabs Ian caught!

We popped in to Hangover Bay – such a pretty spot, which would be a local mecca in the summer, we reckon. We were fascinated to see waves coming in and then turning to run sideways against the incoming flow.

The Pinnacles are amazing! Nobody is quite sure how they were formed, but we tend to agree with the theory that they are the stumps of ancient trees which were inundated when sea levels rose.

We had intended to stay until sunset, but had just decided we'd seen enough and were ready to leave, when we came across a minibus load of Malaysian tourists whose rented vehicle had burst a tyre. The vehicle had not even been provided with a jack, so Ian came to the rescue with our bottle jack and compressor and the guys all did the hero thing and got the bus back on the road. By then it was just on dusk, so we got our fantastic dusk photos of the Pinnacles after all.

Just another day of new and interesting things to see.