Esperance – so much fun!

Esperance has a really great esplanade and foreshore area.  The day after the Yabby Classic was insanely hot again and we had heard about a water slide into the ocean next to the James Street pier so we went to investigate.  What we found was not really a water slide, but a slide into the water.  They have built a square floating platform and put a playground slide out there.  Kids swim out to the platform, climb the ladder and slide down, splash!  It’s awesome!  There were a few too many people around to leave our stuff unattended so Ben and Jenny swam out there and had a great time.  There was a group of older aboriginal kids, probably early teens and they were amazing and frightening at the same time.  Their acrobatics were astounding, backflips, somersaults, really high leaps – all from the slippery top of the slide (and off the higher jetty nearby).  However, while I was thinking how spectacular they were, I was also worried they were going to slip off, whack their heads on the edge of the platform or land on each other. They obviously inspired Ben though because he happily leapt off the very high jetty shortly after that and enjoyed it immensely.

(I somehow managed not to take any photos that day so can’t show you what I mean)

Cape Arid National Park

We took a day trip out to Cape Arid National Park and by fortunate chance, stopped in at the Condingup Tavern on the way.  The waitress there recommended that we take a side trip to Wharton Beach which was a short drive down a side road.  This is one of those great tips that lead to a brilliant experience.  The beach is beautiful, with pristine white sand and amazingly clear water.  We obviously came at the right time of year because this amazing beach was empty except for three fishermen further up the beach to our right, and a couple of nudists on the distant rocks to our left.

Jenny and Ben in the beautiful water.

Separated at birth

Ben had such a great time swimming and jumping the waves at Wharton Beach that he fell asleep on the way to Cape Arid so we had to sit in the carpark until he woke up.  Then we found another awesome beach in the National Park called Dolphin Cove.  We had to follow a track through bush and over rocks to get to it and Ben discovered a love of following trail markers (which is ongoing).  He was very keen to lead the way.  When we made it to the top of the rocks overlooking the cove we found a beautiful sparkling cove with more of this area’s bright white sand.  To make it even more special, the beach was deserted except for 2 kangaroos which leapt off into the bush when they saw us.  It was a magical beach to swim at and the water was not too cold.

Dolphin Cove

Timer photos - always tricky.

Beach Driving!

We did a 4WD course in December and have been keen to try out some beach driving.  We rang to book on a beach drive tour where you take your own 4WD along but unfortunately they weren’t running the week we were there.  The tour operator suggested we just go ourselves and recommended an easy 22km route along the beach from Wylie Beach to Cape le Grand.  We thought it over and decided to do it.  We have a deflator to let the tires down (20-25psi on this sand) and a compressor to pump them up again when we get back to the bitumen.  We have a shovel and recovery gear.  There have also been loads of 4WDs on the beaches we have been to, so we figured if worst came to worst, someone would help us out.      

We packed the tent and camping gear in case we could find a spot to set up without the van for the night and set off.  We rolled onto the sand at Wylie Bay, let the tyres down and had one of the most spectacular drives we have ever had.  Sand driving is so much fun!  The steering is sloppy because of the spongy surface and low tyre pressure, you can’t turn sharply and you need to be careful braking.  You also have to find the right balance point with your speed.  It’s like a speedboat – the slower you go, the lower in the water (or sand in this case) you sit so you need to maintain enough speed to keep the car on top of the sand but not so much speed that you lose control.   The beach we were on is pretty flat and compact so it wasn’t very difficult.  Dips, soft sand and dunes are a whole other story and we will work our way up to them.

Jenny deflating our tyres to 25 psi

 

I don’t want to go on and on too much about the amazing beaches here, but this beach was amazing!  There is nothing like driving along a perfect white beach with perfect blue water next to you, feeling chuffed that you’ve successfully done something you had been worried about trying.

22km of this awesome view

 

As soon as we arrived at the Cape le Grand National Park end of the beach, I went to see if we could get a campsite.  There are 15 ranger managed sites and unfortunately they were all booked out.  The other camp ground in the park is at Lucky Bay and it was burned out in the recent fires so the demand at the Cape le Grand beach is high.  We wanted to look through the park anyway so had some lunch and drove around to Lucky Bay.

Lucky Bay is filled with happy backpackers.  This is because Lucky Bay is filled with very friendly kangaroos who are more than happy to pose while happy backpackers take selfies with them.  Ben loves animals and was very excited to have a pat and also pose with the friendly kangaroos.  They immediately became his friends.

There is a mobile café at Lucky Bay, run by a lovely lady called Robyne.  The sand is so compact there that you can drive onto the beach so she parks her van on the sand and does a roaring trade in coffee and ice-creams.  Her specialty is a 'Kangaccino' which is a cappuccino with 5 malteasers dropped in to represent kangaroo droppings.  We had a great chat, bought said coffee and ice-creams, drove down the beach a couple of hundred metres away from anyone else, parked on the sand, hopped out and went for a swim.  It’s very handy having your car right there on the sand next you, especially if you haven’t yet changed into your bathers and don’t want to bare your bum to the kangaroos.

Robyne's coffee van on the beach.

Park on the beach and hop straight into the water!

The waves were a perfect size and Ben did some awesome boogie boarding.  He is a great swimmer but we bought him a floatation vest to help him in currents and rips (great suggestion Kathryn!) and we realised that as an added bonus, it doubles as a handle so we can lift him up over waves.  He had one particularly long ride into shore, stood up with a huge smile on his face and declared “This is the best day EVER!”.  We both agreed!

"Best day EVER!"