Stromatolites

Western Australia has some unique sites to see:  the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park formed from the remains of seashells; a pink lake in the Esperance area brought about by the acccumulation of alga producing the red pigment beta carotene; and the stromatolites on the outskirts of Cervantes.  

In the town, all the names of the streets have Spanish  connotations.  We stayed in a small bed and breakfast that suited us in a street called Malaga.  At one end, the road came to a halt and there began miles of white sand and igneous rocks that sparkled in the winter sun.  As the sea roared in, I imagined we were on a desert island in the Indian Ocean.

A five minute drive took us to this peculiar lake containing the stromatolites.  Around the lake are various boardwalks jutting out on to the lake.  You can cicumambulate the lake in about 45 minutes.

The stromatolites are a kind of bacterial rock and they all sat in the shallows at the edge.  Somehow, they evolved from rocks during an ancient period called the Archaean about 2,500 million years ago. Apparently, they were formed at some point during the first billion years of the earth's existence. Looking a bit like off-white sponges, if you stare long enough, you can see the odd bubble of oxygen emitted to rise to the surface of the water.  This is the beginning of the process of photosynthesis.

After a geological while, the cynobacteria proliferated and produced CO2.  I put my finger in the water and tasted it.  It was so salty that I could still taste it hours later.

Some of the stromatolites were rather flat and shapeless while others were like large cauliflowers.  (The word stromatolites comes from the Greek for matress.)  

There they are, growing in the water as they must have been 2.5 billion years ago when they had become sticky and captured the dust and sand to for a 'rock' that was alive with bacteria.  

The only animal we saw was a black swan sitting in the middle of the lake

Oh, and a man and woman did come along to see the stromatolites and I said to the him, "Say hello to your uncle!"  But I don't think he knew what I was talking about, and he just smiled.

CERVANTES II

AT PEACE AT LAKE THETIS WATCHING HER ANCESTORS

CERVANTES

A beautiful and peaceful little fishing village 3-hours north of Perth, but far enough north to experience warmer temperatures.  We’re greeted by an energetic little pudding of a man with a flushed faced suggesting regular quaffing of the local syrup.  Owner of Cervantes Holiday Homes, a row of cabins with all the necessary mod cons, large living room, kitchen, bathroom with the scalding hot solar heated shower, and double bedroom with an added single bedroom in case one is too dizzily disorientated to miss the former, we are welcomed by Tweedledum minus Dee who tells us that he enjoyed Scotland with an amazing array of greens and pure white sheep.  I note on return that the sheep here are actually grey.  He attributes the white wool on Scottish sheep to the perpetual rainfall.  

While effusively explaining the features that we are not to miss in the village, I look down and see he has the Australian disconcerting habit of walking about in bare feet. His blonde knife and fork hairline frames his moon face as he tells us of his visit to Scotland – which he loved, between showers of drizzling Scottish rain.  But the Tattoo, “fan-bloody-marvelous!” 

In the local grocery shop with prices that would outdo Harrod’s in London, is the reluctant owner with that “I’d rather be fishing than standing here ripping off tourists who have no choice but to buy from me” look in his eyes.   

Equally disdainful is Ma Broon in the liquor shop.  She serves me with a frown and I remark, ”You have a lazy little town, here.”

“That’s the way we like it,” she threatens as I read in her eyes that she would get the local sheriff to knee-cap you at the slightest hint of noise after 19.00 hours.

In the corner stands a teller that charges $4 for a withdrawal so I pay with a Halifax Clarity credit card which she examines with suspicious eyes, nary a smile on her fat face.  We pay for a cardboard box of cheap and nasty red wine, my preference and I can’t bring myself to pay the ransom for the release of a $48 bottle of the slightly better concoctions that Australia seems to pride itself in – that is, the unspoken belief that the more you pay for a bottle of the grape juice the better it must be.

We take a walk down to the whitest sand I’ve ever seen, people throwing fishing lines into the Indian Ocean and catching the seaweed.  A fin appears and I think “shark”, but as it bobs up and under the waves, FM assures me it’s only a dolphin. But the sunset –amazing!

AND HERE'S THE SUNSET

We   head off to Hanson Bay and the Greek sounding Lake Thetis which has the stromatolites, one of the oldest living forms on earth.  They once had a BBC programme about them and they really are remarkable, lying like old pancakes under the water of the lake with a salinity 1.5 times that of the sea.  I dip a finger in to taste it and a couple of hours later after various quaffs of the aqua I can still taste the acrid salt. FM suggests it might be poisonous but I is still here.  They vary in size and grow to about one-metre in diameter, produce oxygen and apparently may be responsible for our evolving into who we are as a human race.  Hello, forty-millionth cousin, I think.

Birds of all kinds of feather gather around the edges of the lake and I spot for the first time a black swan, gliding elegantly over the middle of the lake.

After other visits to the aptly named Hangover Bay and Thirsty Point, or was it the other way around? we watch in wonder as the scarlet sun sets again over the turquoise sea and we retire to our Unit 2 on Malaga road for the evening meal.