Natural phenomena

Reluctantly leaving Kalbarri and the Jackson Five once more, we made our way south towards Perth. On the way we came across the Pink Lake, unfortunately not as it's best as the sun was not shining that day. However there was a pink tinge there, and the clouds were reflecting it well.
It appears that it is caused by an algae that thrives in the salty environment, called beta-carotene. It blooms best in bright sunlight, when the water becomes a deep pink, just our luck that we went past on the wrong day!.

After an overnight stop we carried on south, and shortly we came to the pinnacles. These are an amazing natural phenomena, rocks sticking up out of the sand, hundreds of them. There are a number of theories why they were formed, I prefer my own, that is that a volcano left the area with mixed rocks, and the softer sandstone broke down, leaving the limestone rocks standing. Anyway, right or wrong, they are really interesting.

Almost all of the terrain round here is white sand, some of it pure white. Along the way we came across a number of dunes, and we read that the wind is moving them north at around twelve metres a year. This one will cover the road in about ten years time, as it is constantly shifting nothing can grow in it to stabilise it.

Finally we made to David and Mildred's house in Ocean Reef, to be made very welcome as always. We had a great few days with them, planning our New Zealand trip in January, only marred by the fact that Betty required  major work when she went in for service.
New timing belt and seals, plugs and leads, brakes as well as a full service took two and a half days, leaving us very little time to give here a thorough clean before we take off again. And I had to have smelling salts when I got the bill!
We had bought a new mattress for the roof tent, take out the plugs and it self inflates, and should deflate when we close the roof tent. Unfortunately it didn't quite work that way, and we had not bargained for it not being easy to roll up. So that idea went for a Burton, we will just have to suffer the mattress we have.

While there David and I visited Scarborough Rotary club, David is a member of Mindarie club, which meets fortnightly and his club was not meeting this week. It was good to meet some of the guys I had met last year, and to bring them up to date on our travels to date.