Stromatolites, Existed Billion Years Ago

Lake Thetis, a saline coastal lake, situated at a small town, Cervantes, about 11km away from the beautiful Nambung National Park, where The Pinnacles are.  We took a short drive to Cervantes after the car we hired was running out of fuel.

In some parts of out skirt of Western Australia, when it is out, it is really quiet, like you are all alone, in the place.  No one else passing by, even though The Pinnacles could be a tourist packed place. 

Retna highlighted to us while driving there that we should drop by Lake Thetis when we reach Cervantes.

Anyway, the information board, a really huge one standing at the entrance of Cervantes, explaining all the attractions in this small town.  And there we saw Lake Thetis, which is like less than 5 minutes drive from the huge information board.

We headed for quick late lunch or early dinner before heading to Lake Thetis, anyway, the lobster meal, amazing.  This is one food I will miss Australia the most.  Ok, not only lobster, the Apple Strudel, the home cooked meals Retna made, too.

There are plenty of car parks here.  Also has large bays for the buses, well, I am sure many would have been here, who would miss such a magnificent view and historic values.

There is ranger nor park official at Lake Thetis.  So it is self-policing approach.  I guess if similar approach being practised here, one could expect some floating plastic bags, water bottles floating on the lake.

You will be ushered into the metal walk way which was built to protect the stromatolites, and also to avoid the visitors to step on them.  I could see, again, no one is there to ensure no one not walking on the walk way and then step on the stromatolites.

It is about a 2km walk around the lake.  I could see some Australians are having their evening run in the area.

The first few hundred meters, you will be walking on the metal walk way, then you will be walking on the sand walk way, which I think the park ranger or official have maintained the path really well.  I could read signs that said wild animals could be crossing the path, so expect some animals, when you are here.   For us, we encountered lots of ants, really big ones.  Not sure if they bite, but many of them got on one of our bags, we spent some time to chase them out.  Nope, no killing involved.

We spent some time sitting at a platform, enjoying the breeze, the quietness around us.

We met a specialist of stromatolites, and Tan-Vijayans enjoyed the education session with this nice lady.

If we are ever back to Western Australia, we will visit Lake Thetis again.