Esperance

Monday 1st November, packing once again for the long trip to Esperance, 482 K's is a long drive for us caravaners. Packing driving and setting up can be tiring, chuck in, 5 to 6 hours in the car and one does not feel like partying at the end of the day. Anyway the drive took us through Jerramungup, Ravensthorpe and Munglinup and I must say that between the Dutch, French and Aboriginal they have provided us with some challenging names for towns. Down in our current area there is a predominance of aboriginal names, the "yup" on the end is apparently aboriginal for "place off". Anyway these little places are clean tidy little towns where obviously the residents put a lot back into their community to keep their towns as pleasant as they are, and good on them for that.

We arrived in Esperance mid afternoon and were greeted by Pat and Pete our friends from Melbourne. We scored a site that was one of the most difficult to get onto that we have encountered but after several attempts we got there. Once set up we joined the others for a happy hour or two.

Next morning was Melb Cup Day and after a walk along the bay we headed off to the local pub for a day at the races, because of the 3 hour difference in time we were on our way at 10am with the first two races finished. We had a great day, but expensive, we had no luck at all with the horses but the food and drinks were great. Happy hour we met a guy whose wife had fallen over and broken her leg, reminded us of what can happen and with Judy having developed a habit of falling over it's a bit of a worry.

There is a local drive along the coast, which in my opinion is better than "The Great Ocean Drive" in Victoria. It is a 38 km loop along the coast, with many lookouts and beautiful white sand beaches. The water looks such a beautiful color of blue and matched with the white sand and the islands in the background it was easy to just sit on a bench at one of the lookouts and just get lost in the beauty of it all. The return loop goes past the "Pink" Lake, which requires quite a bit of imagination to be pink, a little bit of imagination could maybe make it a mushroom color.

There is a lookout at the end of town that provides 360 views of the area and Esperance being known as the Bay of Isles the views out over the Ocean reminded me a lot of "Halong Bay" in Vietnam. Luckily the lookout had a direction plate which helped to identify which Isle was which. Just under the lookout is the Port Area, where ,much to our annoyance, trains and trucks deliver ore and grain to be loaded for transport overseas (our caravan park is basically beside this route) and they deliver all night.

The other major highlight of this area is Cape Le Grande, 56 Ks East of esperance lies Cape Le Grande, an area of the most beautiful beaches and surrounded by magnificent granite peaks. This is home to Lucky Bay the most beautiful beach we have ever seen, it is possible to drive onto the beach and also to camp beside the beach, this is a national park, so fees apply, next time we visit we will stay here. It is also home to Hellfire Bay and Thistle Cove. I am not even going to try and impart how nice this park is, only one downside, the flies are horrendous.

Another place of interest is a place called The Mermaid Leather Shop where they tan fish skins into leather and sell value added products, the fish leather is very strong and looks good. The products are very expensive but look really good. We also enjoyed a walk out on the jetty which these days is purely a fishing and tourist attraction but is also home to a Sea Lion called Sammy, who lazes about the end of the wharf waiting for fisherman cleaning their catches to throw him a handout. He shows no fear of people and one can only hope that no harm comes to him as happened at Albany.

Our time in Esperance is coming to an end and I must say that this is a wonderful place, one that I could easily live in, the only problem is that of distance, it is a long way from everywhere but is a beautiful part of the world. Saturday we are off for the long drive to Kalgoorlie.