The Nambung Desert of Western Australia is a sight to see and the four of us did exactly that a couple of days later. In Irish terms it's a long round trip from Perth - around 330 miles in all.

This meant an early start and a late finish but what the heck we were all on the holliers. For Ber and me this was our first taste of the semi Outback with long stretches of road almost to ourselves apart from the odd passing road train. These 3 and 4 trailer monsters are also a sight to see and much concentration is needed to overtake them, which generally is possible only where an overtake lane appears about once every 5 miles.

A stop for a mid morning brunch was called for on the way in an "out of the way" place called Cervantes, where we got an update on the cyclone weather then battering the Port Headland area up the coast to the North. Incidentally we heard afterwards of another Irish visitor caught in the eye of the storm and obliged to "enjoy" torrential wind and rain for a few days instead of the expected relaxed sun drenched break by the sea. I suppose unpredictable weather in Down Under's "cyclone corridor" is bound to be a factor during March. Some talk ensued as to whether the "weather" might suddenly turn southways and if it would be wise to abort the trip and light out pronto for home. In short order we decided "to hell with it, that's what phones are for" and anyway we might get an unexpected bonus of an airlift back if things got desperate (we all have great imaginations). And so an unanimous democratic decision was taken to live and if necessary die together for the rest of the day. This is the sort of thing to cement a lifelong bond between people.

We arrived at the Pinnacles National Park shortly after midday. Now this particular place has along with other long lasting features, a spot in my memory for the nude rude dance in the desert performed right there once upon a time by one Billy Connolly from Glasgow under the all seeing eye of the TV camera. One of my own secret reasons for going there was to do a repeat show of this, so as to find out for meself if the feeling for anyone so performing in that great setting was anything like I thought I had detected in the bould Billy on the Box. Hang on though, I'm jumping ahead of meself a little.

At first sight the Pinnacles looks like something from an Apache movie with what appear to be many thousands of anthills from junior to major senior size stretching straight upwards from the sandy floor. They consist of a sort of petrified vegetation spiced with sea shells on a limestone base and washed down with very occasional rain (dining is never far from the surface of our minds), so formed over a very long time and because of the wind and dryness of the clime outside of winter. You can drive around in the place along well marked tracks but I'd say you might need a 4D wheel affair to manoeuvre if you strayed onto the rest of the sand. We of course had to get out "all the time" and pretend we were cowboys and injuns. This was especially suitable for Senor Antonio who happened to be wearing a sort of stetson hat. Real spaghetti western material he was for the day. Various photographs of our various role plays in various poses (on top of the mounds, underneath and behind and even inside a few as well) had to be set up and shot and the results do have a certain Sergio Leone "atmosphere" even if I say so myself. I don't really know if that's a good thing or no but I suppose none of the prints would be suitable as an item on a CV for example.

After a good while we stopped at a sort of look out point in the middle of the place, for a rest and a look out of course, which also had a small number of other visitors doing the same. Slowly these others all drifted away until there remained only ourselves and a youngish German couple with two small kids in tow and a camper van parked down the steps. Well after Tony and Ber had smoked 3 or 4 cigarettes, the Jerries finally piled back into their Tourer and departed. Here at last I thought was my chance to do me Big Yin act and feeling full of do and daring I announced my intent - no photographs mind, at least not while I was looking. Down the steps I trotted and headed on for a large likely looking Pinnacle which would serve as a grand Maypole to prance around. When I got to it I hopped around to the "blind side" already starting to divest meself. Next thing I heard out of nowhere a motor engine and who drove up from a dip in the track now directly in front of me but the German Griswalds. They crunched to a halt no more than 50 yards from where I "froze" and then proceeded to extract a bleedin' picnic table and chairs from the "boot" and set up before sitting down to their bleedin' lunch. If by any fluke ya ever get to read this Billy auld son, I'm sorry to say my attempt (and I feel it was a fair one given the number of miles I had to travel) to empathise with you in the pinnacle of your own Pinnacles show had to be called off. Let's just say it wasn't the rain stopped play. All of this of course is despite the "fact" that for folklore purposes the Cusack gang have insisted to all and sundry that the "mad bastard" (me) did actually carry out his threat with 2 and 2 halves Deutchlanders and 3 others (pretending not to know me) looking on in disbelief. Such is fame but I know that nobody else knows how I really measure up to a WA Pinnacle and somehow that thought is kinda comforting to me! Ah feck, now I'm starting to wonder how Billy measured up - I need to give me mind some peace.

The journey homewards was without incident until we stopped for petrol and ice cream when we discovered that the storm up North had led to a flooding of the rivers and that the one a few miles on was just about to flood the road. The confectionery disappeared in record time and we dived back into the mobile and took off down the highway at a rate of knots. Our luck was in and we made it over the bridge just as the water was about to overflow. To be doubly sure of not meeting any further such obstacle we took a roundabout way home by way of Yanchep again. Here we "took our ease" on the tranquil beach and watched the sun going down. And a beautiful peaceful scene it was too with just a few locals chatting in laid back fashion and a couple more casting their lines into the gentle rhythmic spray. The perfect last scene to the daylight action of another great day. This holiday was really agreeing with us and with Tony and Eileen who hadn't been to the Pinnacles before either.