28 June, 2017
Today we headed out into the bush. First we found a road with beach access. The beach is on the Indian Ocean. That is the third ocean we have encountered this vacation: Pacific, Southern, and now Indian. The beach had very fine, soft white sand. Very nice. We all had to remove our socks and shoes and roll up our pants. The sand was great to walk on; the ocean very cold, but beautiful. Joshua, Kathi, and Marian found a bunch of shells.
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| Hangover Beach (in Yued, it is Rest Beach) |
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| Kathi and Joshua collecting shells |
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| Kathi and Marian |
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| Joshua |
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| Randy |
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| Joshua got in a little too deep! His pants were soaking wet for the rest of the day. |
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| Joshua loving the beach! |
Then we drove to a nearby town for gas. The towns in this part of Australia--north of Perth--are very far apart. Then we drove back by the ocean access to The Pinnacle Desert. It was created by shells compacting when the ocean covered everything. The wind blew away everything else and these towers of limestone remain. It's kind of ghostly! Pinnacles as far as the eye can see. The sand is the consistency and color of corn meal. Very weird. At the Pinnacles, you can drive through on the road and get out to take pictures, or you can hike the 5 km trail. I would've loved to hike it, but we didn't have time and not everyone would have been able to make the hike.
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| The Pinnacles Desert |
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| The yellow sand |
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| Marian and Kathi |
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| me! |
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| Pinnacles as far as the eye can see |
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| Some are even a bit suggestive |
Then we drove a bit further to the town on New Norcia (NOR see ah). It is more of an almost ghost town. It began as a Spanish Catholic monastery/mission. They were there to help the indigenous peoples of the area--the Yued (known to the monks as Moora). The mission was to cater to the physical and spiritual needs of the Yued. They trained the adults in trades while the children were educated. They wanted to prepare the Yued for life in the wider (English) society. They wanted to insulate them from the worse aspects of colonial life while enabling them to retain their cultural identity. They built homes for the Yued who wanted to live with them and farm and learn new trades and they had a boarding school for the children. Unfortunately, the bishops and later leaders transformed the schools and the mission and children were mistreated and the people forced to become English. They brought in nuns from Spain to teach and care for the girls.
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| The monastery. It looks exactly like I would guess a monastery in the bush to look like! |
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| the monastery |
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| The chapel |
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| A sun dial on the Novitiate's house (for the Novices) |
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| The boys' school |
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| The boys' school |
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| The girls' school |
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| The |
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| The convent |
When we were done as the sun was beginning to set, we headed back the three plus hours to Fremantle, stopping at a McDonald's on the way.
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| Scattered around, we would see huge mountains of pure, white sand. |
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