Explore with Fran

The last time we spoke, a couple of weeks ago, it was to run you through our Melbourne trip. Where might you wonder is the rest of the Xmas Western Australia road trip? Well, rewinding back to December, and Xmas, part of it is here.

Now that we don’t have to talk about malfunctioning Fitbits, and quibble about how many ghost steps the aforementioned Fitbit was creating, we can focus once again on the beautiful part of the world that is WA. For the record, my Fitbit was accurate. Just saying.

Rising early, with the morning sun, and battling very persistent flies, that seem determined to either fly directly into your mouth, eyes, or ears, we took the short bush walk to Wave Rock. We could hardly drive 4 hours, through the middle of nowhere, no disrespect to the many small “towns” we passed on the way through, and not get at least one picture of Wave Rock.

Picture taken, we left the hustle and bustle of Hyden, and it’s 400 hundred population (it may have increased by a couple by now), and hit the dry, dusty, open road once more. Hyden is about half way to Esperance, our next destination, and the second 4 hours of the journey mirrored the first. If I only glanced very quickly at the names of the towns, they could have even all been the same, save for a couple of different consonants.

Last nights roadkill, freshly oozing scarlet blood on the side of the highway. Signs reminding you of the Fire Danger level. Nothing much else to break up the monotony. Thank god for music playlists, and my excellent signing voice, to while away some of the time. Munglinup Roadhouse told me it was now only 1 hour to Esperance.

Enjoying one of the many beautiful beaches of the south coast

Whilst Esperance undoubtedly has some amazing beaches, the town leaves a little to be desired. Not one of the picture postcard places we were yet to experience. The town had the look and feel of somewhere that had fallen on hard times. A little shabby around the edges. We also nicknamed it the “town of myths”. Why? Well, the pictures below give you an idea. Researching our stay in Esperance we had a list that included, “visit the Pink Lake”, and also, “see kangaroos on the beach at Lucky Bay”. Maybe we just weren’t lucky. These are the “tourist brochure vs reality” images. Guess which is which…

Pink Lake takes it’s name from the beta carotene, as found in carrots. The carrots must not have been working on the days we visited. Still, the lake is on the Great Ocean Drive, leading to 10 Mile Lagoon, and Twilight Beach. Oh my!

Each of the beaches we visited took my breath away. The amount of times the only word I had was “wow”. Just wow. Nothing else. I immediately knew I had found the best beaches in Australia. In my opinion. I don’t anybody trolling me on the virtues of the respective beaches in the many beautiful parts of Australia. We can all have our own opinion people, and this is mine.

On another scorcher of a day, who could resist?

A great aspect of road tripping is the serendipitous nature of it. The things you come across, that you weren’t looking for. Such as the Lucky Bay brewery. Spotting the roadside sign, we followed the road and found a tiny little micro brewery, brewing, and serving up some great ales. The amount of microbreweries in Australia, as I imagine in other parts of the world, have exploded in recent years. And beer drinking is much the better for it.

With hindsight, it was a master stroke buying a very large tinnie of ice cold Sandy Hook pale ale, poured, and canned right in front of me as I waited. You see, we were very happy to make use of the BBQ at the Pink Lake Tourist Park, but less happy with our choice of burgers from Woollies. Once cooked, it looked like, and had the consistency of a breeze block. Note to self, don’t buy the cheapest burgers in the whole supermarket tomorrow night.

Our last full day in Esperance saw us having a drive out to Cape Le Grande National Park. Incongruously this had us driving past “Stonehenge”. A full size replica, in a field, in the middle of nowhere. One of those moments when all you can do is scratch your head, take a photo, and move on.

One of the many “wow” moments in Esperance

After being woken by our neighbours on the camp site at 5am, they no doubt had a very long drive ahead of them, we were on the road ourselves by 7.30am, after coffee, breakfast, and ablutions.