Esperance

After four nights and five days across the vast latitudinal expanse of Australia, all four of us were well and truly ready for some time outside of the car.

The beautiful seaside town of Esperance welcomed us with mildly warm weather and a slight sea breeze. We checked into the RAC Holiday Park and, to our surprise, we ended up with an ocean view site. Score! Sarah had experienced another revolution around our sun on the same day, so a dinner befitting such an occasion was called for. Sarah had chosen the Pier Hotel as the location and we managed to reserve a table at 5:30 that evening. After a scrumptious and rather oversized meal, we retired to bed early. The next day was a well-needed low key day, with shopping for a week’s groceries and some downtime on the agenda. I was yet to fully acclimatise to the Western Australian time zone, so found myself wide awake at 5:00am the next morning. Conversely, the girls were all ‘catching flies’, so I decided to take a walk along the esplanade. Fortunately, there is a coffee van that opens every morning at 5:30am just outside the caravan park – how serendipitous!

After a great morning stroll and some breakfast we decided to venture to Esperance’s version of Stonehenge. Sarah and I gave a unified groan as we realised the attraction was going to come at a cost of $25 dollars (plus $8.50 for the absolutely necessary stubby holder…) To our surprise it was a most enjoyable time spent there. Not because of the impressive engineering, but for the fact that the location provided us with the absolute best space for epic games of hide and seek with the kids. They (and we) loved it!

From there, it was time to finally get the prado tyres onto some sand. This was a first for me, but I felt confident enough with a tyre deflator and a set of maxtrax on the roof. What could possibly go wrong? Luckily, we managed to venture along the beach without getting bogged and thoroughly enjoyed the time there. Poor weather hindered our opportunities to swim, but we figure that there will be ample time for that on this trip.

A bite of lunch and we took the girls to the Animal and Bird Park, just out of town. The girls just loved interacting with all the different animals; both indigenous and not to Australia. We happened to spy a lonely tiger snake curiously venturing through one of the enclosures. Luckily, it was too cool for it to be too active. A curious sheep dodged a potentially devastating outcome as it investigated the snake. Ebony and Charlotte were able to hold guinea pigs, bunnies and pat a variety of farm animals also. Fresh flake for dinner that night and another early one.

The following day was our last full day in Esperance, so we ventured to the local Sunday market for a look. Whilst there were a few stalls of various knick-knacks and local produce, which were interesting, we were finished in about forty five minutes. It was then that we moved onto the Great Ocean Drive, which, in my opinion, rivals the much longer Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Big call, I know. Living in Esperance must be tough and I mean that will all possible sarcasm. They are incredibly spoilt for choice when it comes to pristine coastline. Ebony marvelled at some local surfers whilst Charlotte was happy rock hopping and exploring with me. Each of the many stops along this drive seemed to become more and more breathtaking; my favourite being Twilight Beach. I would love to visit when there is no cloud, but the weather has not been on our side this week, sadly.

It was then back to the van for our final afternoon before we head out to Cape Le Grand. Cyclone Seroja’s after effects should be felt here tomorrow and into Tuesday, so we won’t be venturing out much. Hopefully, we can get some sunshine and explore! Esperance was our first major stop for this trip, so the benchmark has been set pretty high. Sarah and I agreed that this would be a fantastic place to live! I wonder if the local school and hospital are looking for staff…