Our first test is a trip to Esperance for a long weekend. Esperance is an isolated seaside town on the south coast of Australia. Objects on the map are farther apart than they appear. I believe that Western Australia is about 2 times the size of Alaska (which is about 2.5 times the size of Texas).
So for our little weekend away, we had an 8 hour drive to the Southern Coast. You drive through mostly farming country--the wheatbelt. Towns are few and far between , 40-50 miles between towns of maybe 500-1000 people.
Weirdly, these small WA towns have worked hard to develop their own local identity, and to become a destination for tourists. Wave Rock in Hyden is a 15 m tall rock shaped like a wave, and they are selling coasters, t-shirts everything they can to make a name for themselves. The big tourist attraction is pretty neat, but the cave of aboriginal paintings was VERy cool. On the way to Hyden, we drove through Corrigen--a small town famous for having a dog cemetery. Their town was dying, so to rejuvenate it, they have tried to make the dog cemetery a focus for the town. So, they organised a Guinness book of World Records attempt--most numbers of Dogs in a Ute (a ute is a work truck). In celebration, and to promote the town, there are UTEs and cars advertising Corrigen along the long highway to Esperance.
The amazing thing is that my hometown of Elmore was looking for ways to revitalise their community, and the foundation they asked for help brought in a speaker from Western Australia to talk about Corrigen and Hyden. Small world huh?
Not when you are driving to Esperance.
Anyway, with all these attractive tourist destinations to loiter at, Nathan and I didn't arrive in Esperance until 11:00 pm on Friday night. Luckily the Esperance Guesthouse had given us a code to enter if we were late. Its a hostel/guesthouse, so we were a little surprised to score a bedroom with a sitting lounge, and a REAL bed, with room to walk around it and everything! The next morning, the owner of the guesthouse left freshbaked bread and good coffee on the side board for her guests. The smell of the bread woke me up before the alarm. ForNathan and I, who have been budget travels for years, it was heaven.
After a fantastic breakfast we took to the rough Southern Ocean for a wildlife/eco tour and a trip to Woody Island. The wildlife/eco tour showed off a few seals and sealions, a sea eagle, but rough weather and a cutting wind made us glad to arrive at Woody Island for tea. Nathan and I planned to rough it, because Woody Island is a class A nature reserve. With our tents and sleeping bags, we followed the guide to the kitchen where tea and cake was waiting for us. Before our tour he pointed us to the showers, and the camp kitchen which included sinks, fridge/freezers, and of course, Aussie BBQs. (This is roughing it...we didn't bring the airmattress like everyone else!) We set up our tent, and the weather cleared. After a few hikes, Nathan settled into fish a little. He caught two fish--which we had never seen before, and weren't in our local guidebook.. We ate them anyway.
One of the final highlights of Woody Island is the nesting Fairy Penguins. Parents swim 40 km to fish, and bring the food home for waiting babies. We waited til almost dark to see the penguins return. One lone baby penguin sheltered the beneath the rocks was waiting hungrily (I thought Nathan might regurgitate some fish for him, but he kept his delicious mystery fish to himself). We waited for awhile, but it grew to dark for us to wait for his parents to return.
The next day, we sailed back to Esperance before climbing on a dive boat. Which sailed back to Woody Island. This was our first open water dive, and I was a little nervous. As the rest of the divers sank to the bottom, I hyperventilated and tried to get my ears to pop. After a while, we made it below the surface, but the dive master had long since left us behind. We explored the area where we were, and after a peaceful 20 minutes rose to the surface and signalled the boat. It would have been longer, but my hyperventilating used up most of my air in the first 10 minutes.
We camped that night in Cape Le Grand, a national park only 20 minutes from Esperance that is famous for its beautiful beaches. Folks from WA claim that Esperance beaches are the best in Australia. The most famous is Cape Le Grand beach which has 10 miles of the finest white sand you've ever seen. It squeaks when you walk on it. NO REALLY. The sand is about the colour and texture of flour, and stretches for miles against an aqua-marine ocean. Our pictures don't really do it justice, because the sky was overcast. But when the sun would break through it was magnificent.
We concluded our visit to Esperance by climbing Frenchman's peak (because the top looks like a beret). Its really steep! On one of our many resting stops, we actually met a Frenchman on holiday. He wasn't wearing a beret, he was wearing one of those Australian sun hats.
But still, ironic huh?
The view from the top was stunning, beach, after beach, island after island (about 150 islands in the waters near Esperance). After taking it all in, we descended. Just in time to stiffen up nicely for the 8 hour trip home.
