VISIT THE PINNACLE COUNTRY

Dotted with stunning beaches, extraordinary rock formations and rugged national parks, the Turquoise Coast is a travellers dream

WORDS BY AMY SMITH AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIK SMITH

Less than a 200km drive north of Perth is the very beautiful and eloquently named Turquoise Coast, our destination for the next week. The Turquoise Coast, named after its stunningly coloured water, stretches along the Indian Ocean Drive from Lancelin, Cervantes, Jurien Bay, Green Head, Leeman, Dongara all the way to Port Denison. However, as we only had a week to explore we decided to concentrate our efforts around the Jurien Bay area, as there was so much to see and do.

Due to the expected crowds of the upcoming long weekend, we had decided to head up mid-week and secure a camp spot at the divine Sandy Cape Recreation Reserve. Sandy Cape is a budget camp located only 18km from Jurien Bay, it has clean drop toilets and is run by the Shire of Dandaragan, with a caretaker living onsite. Camp sites are located only a stone’s throw from the beach, costing only $15.00 per night per couple paid to the caretaker, and not surprisingly, it has great reviews on Wikicamps and was great value for us to use as a base to explore Jurien Bay and surrounds. As we arrived on a Wednesday morning it wasn’t too busy, but then by Thursday afternoon the cars and vans all started rolling in and by late Thursday evening the place was full.

PINNACLES

Our first exploration around the area of course was the infamous Pinnacles, located within the Nambung National Park, about a 45km drive south of Jurien Bay, and only 20km drive south from Cervantes. After stopping at the entrance to show our Annual Parks Pass, the lovely lady noticed we were from Victoria, so we had ended up having a lengthy chat about the area, she certainly loved her home turf, as she passionately gave us tips about the ‘must see and do activities’ around the area.

Amazingly, The Pinnacles is an attraction that you can stay in your car for, driving around a well-marked track. Whilst that was great, we also decided to set off and explore on foot, taking photos and marvelling at the strange pillars that dotted the landscape within the national park, with some of them being more than four metres tall. After our drive around we also had a look in the information centre to learn more about these eerily strange ancient pillars. We spent a few hours here and really enjoyed ourselves, even though it was very busy, Nik had already made the decision to get up early the next day and come back and take some sunrise photography and time lapse video, which were pretty amazing.

LESUEUR NATIONAL PARK AND STOCKYARD GULLY

Another great national park we visited nearby was Lesueur National Park, named after Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, a natural history artist who sailed on board the ship, the Naturaliste back in 1801. The park is known for its abundance of flora and wildflowers, however as we were too early in the season for wildflowers, we didn’t get to experience the park in all its glory. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed reading about and seeing the abundance of flora on show along the short trail as well as the relatively easy three kilometre hike to the top of Mt Lesueur, where we searched for a sighting of a wedge tail eagle. After our walk we continued along the tourist drive through the park, having morning tea at the Cockleshell Gully picnic area.

Stockyard Gully Conservation Park was our next destination for the day, in particular the Stockyard Gully Caves. Stockyard Gully is located inland, north of Jurien Bay and Green Head and is only accessible by 4WD, as the track in is quite sandy and rocky. In the 1800s stockmen used the cave and the creek bed as a natural stockyard and rest point, when droving their cattle from Geraldton to the areas of Midland and Guildford, hence the aptly named Stockyard Caves. With the weather warming up we were looking forward to a short hike and then some relief within the cave. The cave itself is very large and is one of the few known places in Australia where quicksand is found during the wet weather. Thankfully, we had no wet weather so didn’t need to worry about losing the kids in the quicksand, so armed with our torches and with the kids holding hands and forming a line across the cave we went exploring. The cave is about 200m long and not surprisingly pitch black when at the centre, we were amazed at the enormous bee hives at either entrance, they were gigantic and you could certainly smell the honey when you got close, not too close though.

After our walk through the cave we set ourselves up at the picnic table for lunch before heading off back to camp, but not before calling into Green Head for a look around and a quick swim at the protected bay. Green Head is a small town consisting of a general store, petrol station and a café/ accommodation/ adventure centre, so there was not a lot to see, but the cafe certainly made a decent cup of coffee and tea.

JURIEN BAY

Whilst staying at Sandy Cape we also ventured into Jurien Bay on a number of occasions to pick up a few supplies and have lunch at the foreshore, as well as a swim at the beach and a fish off the jetty. On the Sunday morning we headed in quite early to have a wander around the weekly market, it wasn’t a huge market but the kids enjoyed the bubble lady while Nik and I enjoyed a coffee, wandering around the many stalls and in particular, speaking to the people at the Bonsai display stall, they had quite an impressive arrangement of Bonsai trees and were more than happy to answer our many questions on the subject.

The long weekend at Sandy Cape was very busy with many people calling in for a day trip from Jurien Bay to swim and canoe in the turquoise waters of the amazing beach, quite clearly its reputation proceeds itself. We will certainly be returning in the future, to once again explore and enjoy the beauty that is the Turquoise Coast.