One in a million moment

The plan was simple, take a two hour drive north of the city to an all time favourite location, The Pinnacles Desert - Nambung National Park, and stay up all night taking pictures of the stars. Fortunately, fate blessed me with another feature to add to the day.

The Pinnacles Desert is an other-worldly place. Thousands of weathered limestone pillars stretch an almost out-of-place desert expanse estimated to be around 190 hectares. Standing as short as knee height to over eleven feet, there are several theories as to how these Pinnacles have come to form, from scientific theories to age old stories and beliefs from the Nyoongar, an Aboriginal tribe native to the land. From my personal experiences here, it is a sacred place and one that has come to bare a special place in my heart.

For most people, it may just seem to be a natural tourist attraction, a place of history or an opportunity to stop at the visitors centre before heading further from/toward the city of Perth, roughly 220 kilometres South. For myself, it was a place where my dreams where born.

On this particular visit, everything was perfect, I am literally talking the stars aligned, this day was a day of fate. I had finished work around 2pm, got home, washed up and decided I was going to drive up for the evening. I was feeling good, work had been a breeze, I was well rested, belly full and had the calling for adventure. I knew I had work the following day but alas, I am no stranger to all-nighters followed by another day at work. On route, I stopped at hangover bay which is pretty much opposite the turn off for the pinnacles. I had the drone out on the beach, doing my thing as per. I ended up walking quite a distance, even stopping and talking to this random beach-bum of a guy enjoying a single beer in the middle of pretty much nowhere, come to think of it, I hadn’t even seen any cars even remotely close to us (excluding my own), lovely man nonetheless. I carried on walking, and walking, I tracked the sun and it started to set nearer the horizon. Suddenly something called in my heart and in my mind - the calling. Have you ever had it? Where something tells you to go! To run, to be cautious, to explore, to anything - a voice or a feeling that isn’t your own? I ran! Get to the pinnacles now!

I planned to arrive after sunset, that way nobody would be manning the ticket booth and I could get in for free. I will add, out of the several times iv visited, iv bummed it through twice. Say what you will, I was broke and nothing stops me when I have a mission in mind. Anyways, its only a short drive from Hangover Bay, 10 minutes at most. The whole time I was making my way, my heart was beating, I was almost nervous. I arrived at The Pinnacles early, the ticket booth was manned and alas this ended up being one of the times I did pay, using the last few dollars of change I scavenged from the crevasses and compartments of my car.

There is a route for cars plotted through The Pinnacles, a one-way sand road with a line of small rocks either side, acting as border. On this occasion it was off-limits and only access by foot was permitted. I parked up, grabbed my bag and headed on in.

AS SOON AS I GOT THERE! LIKE LITERALLY THAT VERY SECOND!
A school of Monks (I use that term lightly, yet still the closest thing I can guess they were, of sort) started organising themselves into formation within an opening between The Pinnacles.
Dropped my bag in the closest spot of shade, unpacked my drone and sent it straight into the air. The following video pays homage to this experience and to that of the environment itself.