Trippin' round Oz: Esperance

The drive down the road was a similar drive to one we would have around Beulah. The trees were the same, the wheat and barley fields identical and the dry barren ground around the roadsides typical. It felt like I was home. The only difference was the quantity of salt pans and salinity problems that are around the area.

We arrived in Esperance after lunch and settled in our spot overlooking the beach. My it was a pretty day when we arrived. The weather was nice and calm. It was idyllic. That was until the following day the wind arrived and did not let up for the rest of the time we were in Esperance. We later found out that it is an extremely normal part of the day/month/year.

We caught up with Lisa, Mike and Pip again which was nice for the kids to have a play mate again. We also had a surprise email from Kirsty and Dave whom we met in Point Samson, Onslow and Cape Range. They were working on a farm less than 80km's from Esperance. What was the luck in that. We sent them a text and hoped that they would get it okay knowing how good the blasted phone coverage is outback. They did and thankfully it arrived on a morning in which it was rain and they were not required for stripping so they met up with us for afternoon drinks and a great catch up. It was great to hear about all that they had gotten up to between visits.

We did a heap of work on the kids blogs, diaries and their special maps they sent back to school. These maps took them many hours to complete and they were very proud of the finished products. They look forward to getting them back to put in their travel boxes.

Jordan's completed map.

We did a quick tour of the town found the essential, supermarket, newsagency, McDonald's (for kids) and grog shop (for us)........hehehe We shopped for thongs. We have officially broken 21 pairs between us. We have given them a real punishment and they are rarely off our feet. Austin and Nigel the real thong destroyers. Each up to their 6th pair.

Julia and Duncan arrive at Esperance and we had a lovely dinner together, enjoying a well cooked meal on the baby Q. Yum. I think Nigel wants one when we get home.

We had our first lot of stomach bug while on the trip and unfortunately it was only me that got it but fortunately no one else did. Not sure what caused it but I woke up in a rush around 1am and then spent the next couple of hours back and forth to the toilet. I was flat and not overly well the next day so I was left to my own space while Nigel took the kids out. I was visited by Julia and Duncan and Kirsty to see how I was feeling. It was lovely to think they were thinking of me. Kirsty even found time to get me a bottle of Gatorade.

They headed for the Great Ocean Drive. They visited many places including Rotary Lookout, West, Salmon and Fourth Beach and Twilight Beach (Most popular beach in WA 2011). They even visited Observatory Lookout and Pink Lake which was unfortunately not pink at present. They all had a really good time with Nigel. They even got a lovely ice cream treat on the way back. We all went back the day after so I could also go and visit all these wonderful places.

Fourth Beach

Twilight Beach

Observatory Beach looking towards lookout

Jordan climbing the Observatory Lookout.

A little bit windy.

After feeling miserable we decided to stick around for one more day. I had done all the washing. As you do when you have been sick and then was told that our site could not be kept. Aaarggh. How annoying. Another swap and not something I really felt like doing. Bloody poor luck really. Oh well.

We headed to Cape Le Grande National Park. This National Park is home to the whitest beaching in Australia and they are truly spectacular. The most stunning of blue water and white sands. It was so fluffy and very squeaky to walk on. We firstly headed to Cape Le Grande Beach. Wow it was awesome. The kids had a quick play on the sand and then we headed to Lucky Bay. You could camp at both of these sites but the wind would be annoy as they were not very protected. We had a picnic lunch at the lookout at Lucky Bay and Julia and Duncan joined us as they also turned up at the same time. After lunch we headed to Whistling Rock and Thistle Cove. The cove was just perfect and well protected and the kids again had fun playing. Our final stop was to look around Hellfire Beach. Vote the whitest beach in Australia. It is very true. It was the whitest sand I have ever seen. The kids snow/sand ages were very cute.