Lancelin is a small town about 129 kms. North of Perth, approximately an hour and half away, along the scenic Indian Ocean drive. Its biggest attractions are the sand dunes and sand boarding.

As we drew closer to the small town we passed by many small dunes, so far away from the ocean, with tracts of shrub land on both sides and the highway running through the middle, that they seemed like freaks of nature.

At Lancelin the dunes of pure white sand stand high and reaching the top can be quite a task, more so for those who have to carry the sand boards too as feet keep sinking into the cool sand. But once on top, the scene takes away your breath more than the climb does.

It is stunning! On one side stretch the powdery, snow white sands, on the other is the glittering turquoise ocean below an azure sky dotted with white clouds.

Have A Chat General Store on 104 Gingin Road in the town centre, hires out sand boards ($10/2 hrs refundable security deposit) Other than boards, there are buggies, quads, 4WD cars and motorcycles to zip up and down the dunes. From this little town it is another 3-km. drive to the dunes. There is a car park at the entrance but we risked our jeep through the flat, stony terrain to park closer to the dunes.

Sliding down appeared to be a lot of fun for adults and kids alike...

but climbing back up the almost 45 degrees incline took the wind out of many. Unless you are quite physically fit, this can be very daunting.

Much as we would have loved to spend more time up there a merciless wind made us pack up and leave. Very forceful, it blew sand into our eyes (we had sunglasses on), nose, ears, hair(the caps and hats had to be left behind in the car) and even inside our cell phones. The battery had to be removed to blow out the fine grains! It was worth it, nonetheless!

After doing justice to the lunch we had carried along, at the “dining table” in the photo, we drove further North to another of nature’s awesome wonders.

Photos © Daisy Wadia & Rajeev Ghodke