Western Australia Day 1 - Lancelin Sand Dunes and The Pinnacles Desert

During our first day trip to Perth, or specifically Western Australia, we decided to head to the north straight to Lancelin Sand Dunes (1.5 hours journey from Perth) and The Pinnacles Desert upon arrival at Perth International Airport in 5:30am in the morning. It was a challenging decision, as we just went through a sleep deprivation flight with a fatigue body. What a tough start for the day but somehow we managed to pull it over!

Luckily the immigration and security check in the airport was swiftly done. This marks our first times subjected to airport security dog sniffing, and the heart unconsciously beat faster than usual. Imagine if the sniffer dogs suddenly stop after sniffing your luggage and signal to the police.. what will be the consequences?

After getting a security check clearance, we headed straight to purchase an Optus 7 days package simcard that offers 500MB mobile data, unlimited call and SMS for AUD 15. During that moment, we were unsure whether 500MB will be suffice for 7 days as we need to rely on it to operate our GPS and navigate our ways across Western Australia, and fortunately our gambles on the mobile data worked!

Then, we proceeded to the Redspot car rental counter outside of the terminal to pick up our Kia Rio which was booked online. By that time, the sky was still dark and it was freezing cold. Then off we go to start our very first day of the long awaited Western Australia trip! 

Driving under sleep deprivation was a real torture. I almost dozed off a few times but luckily there were two of us so we could take the wheel alternatively. Our stomach started growling when we arrived at Lancelin, so we stopped by a beach side cafe - Kerfuffle for a brunch. (Google stated it was closed permanently, sadly)

The truth is we were on a budget trip and we tried to reduce expenditure here and there, and meals are unfortunately subjected to the budget trimming (which we revised it during the later of the trip). Thus, we only had a set of big breakfast and fortunately the portion is sufficient to feed the hungry stomach for both of us. Then, we had some caffeine boasting by ordering a cup of Mugachino. Initially, we thought Mugachino is something special but we were stunned when googled its definition in urbandictionary when penning this blog post.

Mugachino - A version of 'cappucino' coffee served in a mug, usually poor quality and with artificial froth and cream on top. Commonly found in country cafes in Australia, in a failed and sad attempt to be sophisticated.

Should we considered this case as pathetic?

Supposedly we were on a tight schedule on the first day (need to travel up to The Pinnacles Desert and go to Rockingham in the evening), the beauty of the coastline at Lancelin and the breeze wafting our warm cheek made us irresistible of saying goodbye to here. We took the time slow, strolling through the beach for a moment and enjoyed watching the dogs kept themselves busy chasing after seagulls and running through the waves hitting the seashore. Such beauty moments unstrained us totally and we felt the vacation mood was slowly kicking in. 

Our next stop is The Pinnacles Desert, another 80km north of Lancelin. Dragging the tired body, we drove across the highway, passing through the hummock grasslands & desert while needed to be wary about presence of kangaroos. 

The Pinnacles Desert practices a different ticketing approach. Each of entry vehicle is subjected to AUD 12 regardless of how many person in the particular car. Basically, you may park your car at designated places along the one way road and go around to snap pictures and witness the wondrous creation of the nature here. 

The Pinnacles Desert offers many great opportunity with the ancient limestone formed millions of years ago. This could be a great place to get some nice sunset shots but our time does not allow that, as we have another upcoming schedule - sand surfing at the Sand Dunes in Lancelin.

For those who drive a big 4WD, you may go for 4 wheeling on the sand dunes but do exercise extra cautious as there many be a big crowds there during peak sessions. 

As the case for us, we rented a sand board for AUD 10 an hour with a deposit of AUD 50. There is a row of shop in Lancelin town that operates sand boarding renting services. If we were not mistaken, the shop closes at 5pm, while the sand dunes is open to public from 8am - 7pm daily.

Sand surfing was really fun! The feelings of fear and excitement joins together when we go down from the slopes on the board, and the strong wind further complicated our progress from reaching the top of the sand dunes. 

The wind was so strong that we wondered how many sand particles have reached into our eyes and lenses! 

Our verdict is - sand surfing is a must if you ever happen to be in Western Australia! It is a very unique activity that only few places of the world offers.

If you have some time, then stroll across the small town of Lancelin that hosts a population of about 600 people. There is a store here - Have a Chat General Store that you can get some food supplies, apart from a few restaurants in the small town. 

Then it marks the end of our first day activity before we continued our journey south to Rockingham, whereby we will overnight in an Airbnb room. Before reaching the place, we stopped by a general store to purchase some ingredients and prepare our own spaghetti noodles with bacon topped with cheese. First times cooking spaghetti for us though! 

And we got an amazing view outside of our airbnb house, a milkyway at 10pm! Our friendly lady host was puzzled when we told her we were going out for a walk during that odd hour, as it was freezing cold and the temperature during that time supposed to be near to 0 degree celcius. However we got a big reward for daring ourselves - some milkyway shots!