Category Archives: Esperance

Esperance – Cape Le Grand National Park

by in Cape Le Grand National Park, Esperance | Leave a comment

DSCN0665-r

We woke up Tuesday morning to dead calm  and absolutely  beautiful weather the only problem was there was no wind for sailing (no sailing for Don Dutch!) but perfect for riding, so after my darling husband fixed my popped tyre we jumped on our bikes and went for a ride to twilight bay. Not 2 kms down the road and my brand new tyre pops, so off I get and walked my bike to the Coffee Cat (coffee cart), best coffee in WA so far, darling husband to the rescue again (I really must learn to change a tyre )

It’s a beautiful way to see the coast line (hills aren’t great though on a bike) the bays have the most beautiful clear water and white sand.

IMG_2346-r

After some lunch and a nanna nap we jumped back on our bikes to check out the local pubs, as you do on holidays, some of the cheapest beers we’ve had since $2 pots in Bundy they even had my favorite size glass the 7 oz, you’ll be happy to know we only had a couple so we we’re still capable of riding home.

Cape Le Grand National Park

We grab some bait off Tom from Caboolture (owner of Taitys Bait shop) and headed south for some fishing and camping in the national park, we set up camp at Lucky Bay looking for some unlucky fish but after some lunch the weather turned crap and we spend a couple hours in the penthouse waiting for some clear skies. Did some exploring once it cleared and checked out the beach and Mathew Flinders monument.

21/03/2013

DSCN0753-rWe hit the beach at 6am to catch some Salmon that Caboolture Tom said we would find, it was over cast but the wind had dropped over night a bit chillie but for some reason the water was warm, Queensland warm 21c the average water temp for the area is more like 14-16c not the balmy 21 we experienced. This they tell us, is why we didn’t get luck in Lucky Bay!

After breakfast we packed up and drove on the beach back to Esperance and searching for the Salmon along the way, other than one enquiry (so she said) we didn’t get a bight… can fish! We had to grab another one of WA’s finest coffee from the Coffee Cat before heading north to Kambalda and the home of the Bovalinos where we will be spending a week or two with the Bovas and in and around Kalgoorlie searching (hunting) for GOLD!!!

The Cape
Big Rock
Go Roos
Lucky Bay
Lucky Bay
Lucky Bay from Camp
No Salmon
Breakfast mmm…
Lucky Bay
Whistle Rock
Men in Black Rock
Gun Fisherman
Can Cast (can’t fish)
Hard at Work
Windy
Twilight Bay

Hyden to Esperance

by in Esperance | Leave a comment

IMG_2326.1-r17/03/2013 – They may not have beat Shelly to the showers but the Grey Nomads beat us out of the Park when they all left as one around 9am to leave us the sole occupants other than a couple who live semi permanent at the Wave Rock Caravan Park.

The road to Esperance had plenty of Nulabour like straight as landing strip stretches and not much else a few towns with only a hotel or a wheat silo and some farmers who drive like Shelly and Ace (no good). We did take a picture of all the bad driving farmer just this truck but we must have passed six cars like this truck.

Ravensthorp had some of the worst coffee you will ever want to sample and Doctor Karl provided the entertainment once Macca finished at 10am. It was a pretty uneventful drive except for the farm machinery that spread the full width of the road (Shelly writing) “it was pretty scary”

IMG_2327-rEsperance is a beach town not unlike Apollo Bay but with very clear water and white sandy beaches, the esplanade lined with Norfolk Pines, a town of surprisingly 15,000 people. After a quick look around we chose the Seafront Caravan Park and set up camp in time to enjoy what we hear is a Grey Nomad daily occurrence the 4pm beer.

IMG_2329-r

18/03/2013 – As our car is our Penthouse (once setup) we cant just take off to do stuff so our bikes got us into to town for a look around and some early morning exercise before breakfast and Chris went to work.

We are meant to be going fishing tonight of the long pier but its closed for repairs, this has upset the gun fisherman (you know who the best fisherman is) so we are going 50k south on Wednesday to camp on the beach and have an all night fishing competition.

On Esperance it self Aboriginal people have been in these parts or over 20,000 years but not the Bovalino family as I expected. The Aboriginal name for Esperance is Kepa Kurl “the place where the water lay down like a boomerang”

We got talking to the veterans camping near us and I (Shelly) could be heading out sailing in the morning weather pending. The guys name is Don he’s from Holland and live in Kalgoorlie (not much sailing in Kal.)

Clear Water
Esperance
Outside our park
Inside our park
Beach in front of our park
Front of our park
Ship loader
Dinner