Driving north from Perth in Western Australia, the landscape becomes more and more sparse and barren as the kilometers tick away. When you´ve been driving for a few hours and realize that you haven´t seen another car for a very long time, you begin to appreciate just how huge and virtually empty Australia actually is!

We were heading to the Nambung National Park (just south of the small town of Cervantes) to see the much talked about Pinnacles Desert. I´d seen the photos in plenty of travel guides, but nothing prepared me for my first glimpse of these huge limestone pillars rising majestically out of the dusty desert sands.

There are hundreds of these strange, rather phallic shaped stones, of all shapes and sizes, scattered across the desert, creating a bizarre, eerie atmosphere. It was really quite creepy and beautiful at the same time. This didn´t stop us, and our fellow tourists, posing for comedy photos of course!

Climbing up to the lookout is a platform from which you have the most spectacular view of the Pinnacles against the backdrop of the beautiful national park land, with the Indian Ocean glistening in the distance. We spent a long time up here just taking in the vista.

On the long drive back south, we were lucky enough to spot herds of kangaroos grazing peacefully in the fields at dusk - a real "I´m in Australia" moment!