ESPERANCE

The cave at the top of Frenchman's Peak which gives you a "window to the world"

We made it to the top of Frenchman Peak

David at the top of Frenchman Peak

The view from the top - pity it was cloudy

Our precious pearls in their clam, top of Frenchman Peak

Pretending to be pearls inside the clam

Bridget and Tess eating lunch at Rossiter Bay

Lucky Beach

Lucky Beach

Doing a YMCA at Lucky Cove

The beautiful granite boulders at Thistle Cove

Bridge and Tess at Thistle Cove

The beautiful granite boulders at Thistle Cove

The girls at Thistle Cove

The kids running from the waves at Thistle Cove

David at Thistle Cove

That's Frenchman Peak in the background - we climbed to the top!!

Our feet in the beautiful sand of Hellfire Bay

Driving home to Wylie Bay along Le Grand Beach!

Tom Tom, the SatNav, says we are driving below the high tide mark!!

At Thiste Cove

Sarah at Twilight Beach (voted Best Austrlian Beach 2006)

Kevin, Alanna, Sarah and David at Esperance

DAY 90 – ESPERANCE (CAPE LE GRAND NATIONAL PARK)     Friday, 30^th September

Off to Cape Le Grand National Park this morning.  The Patersons headed off on a cruise of the Archipelago while we made lunch and headed east to the National Park.  I know I keep saying that all these sights are absolutely stunning, but they really are.  I just don’t have enough superlatives to describe them.  Cape Le Grand is about 50km west of Esperance, so easily accessible.

We started by climbing Frenchman Peak which was actually quite a difficult walk up the side of a 262m granite mountain!  Poor old Mummy was huffing and puffing up the side of this mountain, despite all the walks she has done in the last three months!  But the views from the top were absolutely superb.  Unfortunately, because it was a cloudy day, the photos really can’t do the view justice.  You can see both sides of the Cape from the top and you can see out to the water as well as pasture land.   As this mountain used to be under water hundreds of millions of years ago, there are many caves which had been hollowed out by wind and water.  Some of them naturally framed the view through the granite rock. 

The walk down was just as steep, so no less difficult!  From there we went to Rossiter Bay where we had lunch looking over a beautiful little beach where Edward John Eyre was rescued by Captain Rossiter in 1841 and almost did not complete his voyage of discovery from Adelaide to Albany. He was forever grateful and also named the point there, Mississippi Point, after Rossiter's ship.

From there we went to Lucky Bay and were able to drive onto the beach for the 3km to the viewing platform.  The beach and bay were just gorgeous, perfect white sand that squeaked underneath your feet, waves that just seemed to roll in forever and beautiful granite rocks which extended into the bay. 

Thistle Cove was our next stop where Alanna had seen dolphins jumping out of the water and surfing the waves the day before.  Alas, no such luck for us, but again, the view was superb.  There is a rock there called Whistling Rock which is enormous and obviously has a cavity so that when the wind blows, the rock sounds like it is whistling!  We walked around the coastline over the enormous, granite boulders for a view of the Cove, while the kids spent ages just running away from the waves crashing on the rocks high above the beach.  It is so beautiful to watch children playing the simplest of games and hearing their squeals of delight.  They could have done it for hours.  The water was so blue and the granite rocks so enormous – I have no words to describe. 

Off to Hellfire Bay where the water is just so clear and sparkled in the, by now, clear blue sky.  Here, Sarah wanted to take this opportunity to be a bit creative with her photography and demanded that everyone remove one shoe so that she could get a photo of our feet together.  Of course that meant that the less co-ordinated members of our family managed to get all their runners wet when an incoming wave, or U.W. (“unexpected wave” as Tess call them), caught them unawares!

From there we went to Le Grand Beach where we were able to drive onto the beach and along 22 kilometres back to Wylie Bay near Esperance.  Absolutely stunning!! Words fail me.  Although our 22 kms down Cable Beach is still the best, this was pretty darn good!  The only person we met on the beach was the Ranger.  It felt like we were the only people in the world.

I know I have used many superlatives during this trip, but this was an absolutely spectacular national park – very close to being the best.  The only reason I cannot say it was the best is not because there is somewhere better, but because there are so many other places equally deserving of that title. The photos, I know, will not do it justice.  The place was nothing short of one of God’s very best creations.

Once back in Esperance, we went along the Great Ocean Drive, past the Rotary Lookout, Blue Haven, Observatory Point, Twilight Beach and Ten Mile Lagoon.  It reminded me of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.  Stunning coastal scenery.  On our way back, we went via the Pink Lake, parts of which are indeed, pink!  It was fascinating until I realised that what appeared to be a dried lake bed, was in fact, wet sticky mud!  Great getting that off shoes – thank God our car is looking like a pigsty both inside and out!  Couldn’t get any worse.