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The Nambung National Park is located about 200 km north of Perth, near the town of Cervantes, off the coast of the Indian Ocean. The park was created to protect the famous Pinnacles Desert, an area of coastal sand dunes located in a desert environment where there are huge limestone pillars that create fascinating contrasts with the spectacular yellow sand dunes of the desert.
The Dutch navigators in the seventeenth century were the first Europeans to sight these rock formations, observing them from their ships without landing they believed that it was the remains of an abandoned city.
PINNACLES ARE MAYBE THE REMAINS OF ANCIENT FOSSIL MARINE SHELLS
These limestone rocks, the pinnacles, rising up to four meters in height, their forms resemble tombstones of a cemetery, but the first Dutch explorers exchanged them for the contours of a deserted city, in reality are probably the remains of ancient marine animal fossils calcified by the passage of time, but their origin has not yet been clarified. These features rock formations have been brought to light during the millennia by erosion caused by atmospheric agents, in particular by the wind.
Inside the park is home to some of the typical animals of Australian wildlife such as gray kangaroo and the emu, there are also some species of reptiles including the Tiliqua rugosa and some poisonous snakes including the Western Brown snake or Gwardar (Pseudonaja nuchalis) . Due to the large hot most of the animals that live in the Nambung National Park are nocturnal.
The pinnacles are the most photogenic in the early morning or late afternoon, when the sun and the shadows create depth and contrast and enhance the colors of the rock of the rock formations. The best time to visit the Pinnacles Desert are the months between August and October, which are characterized by the flowering of the Australian wildflowers.
