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| Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand National Park, Esperance |
Following our recent visit to
The Great Southern, we continued eastward to Esperance to complete our exploration of WA’s south coast - or at least the inhabited portion of it. It’s a five hour drive from Albany to Esperance although we took a slightly amended trip to drive through the Stirling Ranges just north of Albany.
The town of
Esperance (population 15,000) is the final frontier of WA. Only overseas tourists and “grey nomads” who take several months or a year to drive around Australia explore the roads east of Esperance. From Esperance it’s 24 hours until you reach Adelaide, South Australia, the next major (or even mentionable) population centre.
Esperance is best known for its white sand beaches. Lucky Bay, in Cape Le Grand National Park, was deemed Australia’s whitest beach by the National Committee on Soil and Terrain - but it didn’t come without some fuss from those Queenslanders on the Great Barrier Reef. White sand beaches - it’s a competitive business here in Australia. Instead of taking the sophisticated 40 minute drive from Esperance to Lucky Bay we opted for the shorter and more scenic route driving on the beach. In other more accessible parts of the world, such amazing beaches would be swarming with people but we saw very few.
Another pride of Esperance is the Recherché Archipelago - 105 islands and 1500 islets and the largest group of islands in southern Australia. We took a half day boat cruise through the islands to view Eagles, Sea Lions and Seals, and apparently Penguins but it must have been the wrong time of year because we didn’t see any. The tour, hosted by
Mackenzie's Island Cruises, took us to Woody Island, one of the largest islands in the Archipelago.
In 1976, the owner of Woody Island was out fishing with his Labrador Twiggy. Twiggy disappeared overboard and by the time her owner realized she was gone, she was nowhere to be found. The conditions were bad, and taking his own safety into consideration, he was in no position to go looking for her. Fast forward three months and his business partner is on Woody island and spots what appears to be a dingo although no dingoes lived on the island. After coaxing a skinny and skittish Twiggy with large amounts of food she returned to Esperance to live with her owner for another 4 years. She swam 3 kilometers in the shark infested harsh conditions of the Southern Ocean and then survived on Woody Island for three months on lizards and birds eggs. Today stands Twiggy’s Landing in memory of Twiggy’s plight.
The 8 hour drive from Esperance back to Perth is long and boring and after awhile, even the beautiful countryside becomes dreary. If you can’t survive on roadhouse meat pies and chips then stock your car with alternative options. Don’t expect a KFC or even a McDonalds along the way.
Fortunately, we had
Wave Rock to entertain us half way into our journey – a two billion year old wave shaped granite formation standing 15 meters tall and 100 meters wide. We saw it…we even surfed it…and then we ate meat pies and continued on our way…
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| Recherche Archipelago |
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| Recherche Archipelago |
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| Recherche Archipelago |
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| Woody Island, Recherche Archipelago |
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| Woody Island, Recherche Archipelago |
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| Esperance |
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| Esperance |
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| Sunset, Esperance Wind Farm |
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| Great Ocean Drive, Esperance |
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| Wave Rock |
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| driving home |
