We booked in to the Esperance camp-site for an extra night, and spent Monday walking along the beach into town, noseying about, having a rare proper coffee and visited Sammy, the local sea-lion resident at the large pier. This is where we first met Brendan and Linda, who are are travelling around WA in a bushcamper (high top landcruiser with a bed inside – INSIDE! In this cold weather, how we long for an inside....!) That night more young European backpackers kept us up even later with their drinking games in the camp kitchen. Honestly, the young people of today...
On Tuesday we set off for Cape le Grande National Park, which is about 50km east of Esperance. We'd been told this was really beautiful, so we were looking forward to it. There are lots of brochures with pictures of kangaroos lazing on pristine white beaches next to turquoise clear waters. We headed first to the campground at Le Grande Beach which we'd been told was nicer than the campground at Lucky Bay as the sites are more secluded. We decided we liked the spot, but wanted to check out Lucky Bay first, so went over there to discover the car park that is Lucky Bay campground! And it was rammed. So we decided to head back to Le Grande Beach and stay for a couple of nights. The weather wasn't perfect, so we didn't see the best of these beaches, but it was still pretty nice. We set up the awning on the back of the tent for first time since we set off in January (3 months on the road now!) and played boggle that evening with the sound of the waves crashing nearby.
On Wednesday we had a lazy day at Le Grande Beach. I had a rather pathetic attempt at surfing – what can I say, not the right waves! More boggle that night in the annex after a Thai red chicken curry, nice.
The next day we toured the rest of the park, heading back to Lucky Bay to catch up with the kangaroos, but still no joy on that front. To be fair, it wasn't really sunbathing weather. Thistle Cove next to Lucky Bay is particularly lovely (although Jen spotted a dead Port Jackson shark). With the weather turning bad and rain promised, we headed back to Esperance and decided a night in a hotel was necessary. We got a deal and stayed at the Best Western Motel – have to say we wouldn't have been very happy if we'd paid full price, it was a bit of a 1970's throw-back room!
Thistle Cove
Port Jackson Shark
On Friday, we did the tourist drive out of Esperance around the headlands and beaches. It was a pretty wild day, so I wasn't getting in the water. Some lovely spots on route though.
To atone for our hotel spending sins, we drove into the Fitzgerald River National Park and camped at Hammersley Inlet for free. We had hoped to camp at Quoin Head, which the Dutch couple at Coffin Bay had told me was amazing, but despite the road being open, no camping was permitted. Hammersley Inlet was a nice little stop though, and we met up with Linda and Brendan in their Bushcamper again. They were travelling with Nic and Ina, a German couple in another Bushcamper. We had a drink with them that evening before an early bed and another cold night!
On Saturday we did a bit of a circuit of that area of the Fitzgerald River National Park, which was really lovely. We drove west on a dirt 2wd track, stopping at the exposed coastal beaches as we went. A large swell had come in, and the surf was huge, so I decided the board could rest easy in the comfort of its bag atop Priscilla. We watched a huge pod of dolphins at East Mylies Beach fishing in the surf while a sea eagle circled over our heads.
Then we headed back west, and took the 4wd track to Quoin Head, our first bit of off-road for a little while. The track was fine, a bit slow in parts, with a steep rocky final descent to the beach at Quoin Head. Quoin Head really was lovely as well. Shame there was no camping!
That night we pushed on to Bremmer Bay and camped there for the night. Absolutely freezing! We circled town beforehand in search of someone showing the football, but Foxtel apparently doesn't reach such remote parts.... Instead we sat in the tent and watched Priscilla (the filum!) on the laptop! That movie just gets better the more you watch it, especially when you can be saying “we've been there” “ooh, that's where we saw the storm” etc as you watch it and recognise the locations.
On Sunday we drove around Bremmer Bay headland to check out Little Boat Harbour (where there's a dive trail which we thought about dipping into, but decided it was a bit beyond our snorkelling skills) and around the little bays which frame the headland watching the fishermen on route. This is a really lovely area, and we decided that we'll have a our beach shack on the hill above Native Dog Beach where I almost went out for a surf, but eventually chickened out.
We carried on around the south coast, checking out Cape Riche on route., then headed into Waychinicup National Park (which is beautiful) where we hoped to camp for the night. We found a lovely spot which a fisherman was about to vacate, but as we waited, a large rental motor-home full of drunk blokes pulled up, presumably on a stag weekend. We decided they wouldn't make the best neighbours and headed back out of the park to Cheyne Beach and camped there instead.
Hope you're all well.
Lots of love,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame
Sounds like fun! Wish we were there. S & J xx
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