Our trip to Esperance was uneventful and across interesting country. We travelled a little faster than our previous days as there were not as many places to visit on the way. One place however, was Bremer Bay, which our Lonely Planet Guide told us was a popular place for whale watching. We travelled the 60 or so kilometres and found a very broad bay with a headland at the southern end which formed a good viewing point. True to Lonely Planet’s suggestion, there were a number of whales in the bay. I think that they were Southern Right Whales. However, they were a long way off and directly in line with the sun, so our view was not really what you would call spectacular.
We reached Esperance in pouring rain – our first really wet day for the entire trip. We ended up having Pizza and a bottle of wine in our motel room for dinner.
Today, we drove along the shoreline to see some of the local coastline. This is the area of the Recherche Archipelago and there are dozens of islands of the coast. With the sun appearing between squalls and dark clouds in the background, we had spectacular views. At times these were complete with rainbows. I’m looking forward to seeing my photos on my computer to see if they are as good as I hope they are.
After lunch, we travelled in the other direction to the Cape LeGrand National Park. It’s a bit similar to the area around Wilsons Promontory in Victoria – granite outcrops, white sandy beaches and coastal heath. The beaches are lined with pure white sand and they provide wonderful scenery. We dodged some of the rain showers as we looked around and explored the area. Just like the Prom, we found lots of kangaroos and emus. There were a few interesting wild flowers that Jill managed to find.
It has been fairly cold today with the temperature only reaching about nine degrees. Tomorrow we begin the final stage of our trip as we head north to Norseman and then turn east to head across the Nullabor Plain.
