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Australia
The star turn driving down Australia's long and lonely Indian Ocean Drive, north of Perth, wasn't the shimmering strip of ocean that enveloped the road on the left or the perfectly blue sky that stretched endlessly to the horizon.
It wasn't the lemon-scented gums that shed light on the scorching asphalt
And they left a breath of citrus fruit, nor, when we got further north
The bush covered in banana flowers with an orange peel.
On this sunny Saturday, it was another perfect day in Western Australia
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What captured my imagination was something much more incongruous:
Thousands of huge limestone pillars rising from a glaring landscape of yellow sand.
It's an incredibly special place - Australia is known worldwide for some truly distinctive rock formations.
But there are few more remarkable than the terrifying and astonishing Pinnacles Desert.
And in a land where impressive geological features with peculiar names hardly raise an eyebrow
Australia, an incredible place
Think of Uluru, the Bungle Bungles, the Booroomba Rocks
And on the mosaic floor - the pinnacles must surely be, well, the pinnacle.
“It's an incredibly special place.
That limestone, the colors, the desert landscape; the fact that you can get all this so close to Perth is remarkable ”
Said Carola Verschuren, chief explorer at Explore Tours Perth.
“I tell the visitors that we're about to enter another planet.”
Travel to the north end of Perth
A round trip of 400 km in a single day, when he had heard about the fort
And a strange wind that blows along this coast, creating a supernatural landscape that few can imagine.
I began my journey in the state's charming little capital, where, as I walked up St George's Terrace
On one of the main roads, I was advised to hold up my skirt.
I laughed, for the day was calm and quiet; the sky cloudless with no sign of turbulence.
But then, suddenly, a gust howled down the street
The tall buildings on either side essentially create a huge wind tunnel.
I shouted, holding my dress tightly.
This was, however, my first encounter with what the locals call “the doctor from Fremantle”.
“It's the name we give to the sea breeze.
But sometimes it's not easy; it's not always a nice, gentle beast, it can be an absolute monster in terms of strength ”
Said Neil Bennett, media and communications manager at the Western Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
“Perth is the windiest city in Australia.
” The “Doctor”, as the name of the wind is lovingly reduced, nevertheless appears like a clock every summer afternoon,
Certainly caused by the temperature difference between the ocean and the land, according to Bennett.
“That's where the term ”doctor“ comes from:
It's the relief, the healing, the warmth. It just cools things down,” he said.
In fact, from immense heat to tropical cyclones and wind vortices
Western Australia is home to all kinds of extreme weather events.
The state holds the record for the strongest wind gust ever recorded
(about 408 km / h, established in 1996 on the north coast of the state)
And it's these blusters and gales that are partly responsible for their natural wonders peculiar.
