Cape Le Grand, Lucky Bay, Esperance, WA.

In the short time we had Esperance was still beautiful, but Cape Le Grand beckoned since were told so much about beautiful beaches and foreshores of this National Park.  We arrived at Cape Le Grand National Park,  set up base at Lucky Bay.  There were about 24 caravan sites that set up next to each other but the views were phenomenal.  As we had finished setting up I heard a noise at the front of the van and went to investigate, there was a mother skippie with her babe beside her just lazin' in the bush.  She wasn't disturbed by the fact that we were there at all.

The camp ground was well maintained, showers powered by solar heating. We took a 4 wheel drive to the opposite end of the Cape to Rossiter's Bay.  The flora was really quite different, nothing we'd seen before, interesting to describe with almost stunted blackened thin tree trunks with a sparse shiny leafy narrow foliage.  We did see however, lots of kangaroos.

Morning broke early again,  we decided that today we would get around on the bikes.  So we traversed the Cape by bike. In some places it was great, in others not so. There were a few occassions where I had to get off to walk the way up the incline.  Daniel    persisted and made it to the top without getting off.

At the end of our journey we'd done, conservatively, around 35 kilometres in about 3 hours.  We'd trekked from Lucky Bay, to Cape Le Grand foreshore back through to Hellfire Bay, Frenchman's Peak, before heading back to Lucky Bay.  The entire area was stunning.  At one moment we flew alongside Dragon flies down the other side of the hills that we climbed, the flight down exhilirating.  We took lots of photos to capture the scenery in various spots.

Hellfire Bay was spectacular. The beach had white gold sands with water that was crsytal clear aqua blue against the sun.  With a huge rock formation to my left as I sat on the beach from which Daniel enjoyed throwing in his fishing line where he fished for a while before joining me for a dip in the ocean to cool off.  a After dinner some more fishing with Daniel cathcing another two fish for the next night's chow.

Time to move on and leave this place but not before heading off for one last fish.  An hour later no catch so pack up time it was.  We made our way back into Esperance to pick up a few supplies before heading off for a whole day's driving through Ravensthorpe before setting up camp for the night at Norman's Beach.  An off the road campsite, free camping, where we met another couple from New South Wales who had just retired sold their family home and bought a new off roader van and new Toyota to do their trip in 3 years.  She was Polish and her husband was Aussie and she was flying back home for her mother's 86th birthday and to see her 10 grandchildren.  Norman's beach was a small little hidden away spot with an inland lake that spilled over into the ocean.  You had to climb over the hilly passage of limestone and sand to get to the open ocean.

We got up early and headed to the beach at 6.30am for some Salmon fishing.  Daniel fished, I read and watched but no luck this time and it was time to move on this time heading towards Albany.