From the sea back to the red dirt

After Bremer Bay, we continued along the coast to Esperance. Esperance had been on my hit list for a long time – not sure why, perhaps the photos of picture-perfect beaches, or just because it is a long way from anywhere.

We were staying just outside of town in a little caravan park which was quite nice, if a little quirky. It did have a nice warm camp kitchen with a TV and couches, and if they hadn’t happened to have been resealing the floors for a couple of days we were there, I might have just settled in to watch the cricket.

But there was too much to see to sit around and we only had five/days to get it all done.

The first day was a work day for me though. The problem with trying to take 10 days off over Christmas is that you have to jam all the work in before then. So I was basically working double to clear the decks (no doubt to still be playing catch up at the other end after my leave – not sure how it always ends up that way!).

Hamish visited yet another doctor for his persistent cough and ended up with more medicine for that which hopefully helps.  The doctor did ask a lot of questions (about our trip) so he seemed to be all over it.

The next day we shipped the dog off to doggy day care so we could go to Cape Le Grande National Park, home of the WORLD’S best beach – Lucky Bay. We started by walking up Frenchman’s Peak though – a quite steep walk with pretty spectacular views at the top. Lucky Bay didn’t disappoint – squeaky white sand and crystal clear water. Cold though, not that the kids noticed. We watched while they swam until they turned blue.

We then popped over to Hellfire Beach for lunch and Cape Le Grande Beach on the way out. If we were feeling more adventurous we could have driven the 22km or so back along the beach to Esperance, but fresh after having to dig ourselves out of a bog on the beach in Bremer Bay we decided to take the bitumen instead.

The next day we did the scenic ocean drive. It’s only 44km or so, but it took us hours as there are about a dozen or so amazing beaches to stop and look out along the way. We were looking for good fishing spots, so after we’d done the loop, we drove back to West Beach to see what we could catch (which turned out to be nothing).

On a hot tip from the guy in the fishing store we then went to Bandy Creek to give that a go. We caught three pufferfish (having never caught any before ever) – those things have some pretty impressive teeth.

Jim caught one whiting so we at least had a little morsel for our efforts.

The rest of the time was interspersed with work and getting some supplies sorted for Christmas/Nullarbor roadtrip, but we did manage to sneak in a visit to Lucky Bay Brewery on our last night. It’s a nice brewery, very kid and dog friendly and a couple of their beers were quite good too. They did have these ridiculous plastic barrels for the kids to try and hurt themselves in, and sure enough, Hamish hurt his elbow, an injury that took him a couple of days to recover.

I could have spent about a month around Esperance exploring all the beaches and the national parks but alas, we had to move on so we packed up and started the four-hour drive to Kalgoorlie.

We knew that as soon as we headed inland we were potentially going to hit warmer weather, (not a bad thing given how cold it is along the coast), but we hadn’t factored in a mini-heatwave where temperatures hit 39 degrees, nor did we consider the gale force winds.

It was VERY windy the whole time we were there. So windy in fact that we had our second night in the car (only a few hours this time), and I also had another stint a couple of days later. The wind not only blows the tent around, but it is also very loud, whereas the car, while uncomfortable, is very quiet…

We had had the foresight to book a place with a pool though, and we enjoyed getting in there every day to deal with the worst of the heat.

Kalgoorlie is quite an old town, built off the back of the gold rush in the mid 1800’s. There are a surprising number of old buildings still in good condition, most of them pubs. We spent a couple of hours wandering the main street looking at the old buildings, and going up to the lookout to look over the town as well.

It’s still a mining town, and it’s hard to miss all the activity given that the mining ‘super pit’ is pretty much right next to town.  We went up to the pit lookout in time to witness a blast and spent a good half hour or so just watching the haul trucks go up and down as they took loads out of the mine. It is massive – and I’ve seen quite a few mines now, but this one is something else. If we’d had more time in Kalgoorlie we probably would have done the pit tour too, which takes you right down into the bottom of the pit.

Kalgoorlie is also the start of the world’s longest golf course, so we went to the information centre to hire a couple of clubs (a 4 iron and a wedge). Jim and the kids did the first couple of holes (they were part of the actual golf course, so I stayed behind with the dog). He then finished off the shopping in preparation for the trip across the Nullarbor, while I knocked off most of the work, then it was time to leave!