Majestic Esperance

We left Bremer Bay just after 9:00am and arrived in Ravensthorpe just prior to midday. As we entered the town, we veered off the road and positioned the BT in front of the beautiful painted silos depicting the flowering cycle of a banksia, for the obligatory photo. We love our van shots in front of painted silos. We ordered a lamb kebab and coffee from the local food truck and sat in the park for a lunch break.

Another hour along the South Coast Highway, after covering over 400km, we arrived in Esperance. We set up at the RAC Caravan Park and took off for a walk to explore the Jetty Headland Precinct. The new Esperance Jetty had been recently reconstructed (replacing the old Tanker Jetty) and had reopened in March 2021. It is 415m in length and has kept its original classic curvature. At the end of the jetty is a dive platform where divers can launch and make their way 100m from the end of the jetty to view the artificial reef. No way were either Sippy or I planning on going out that far into known ‘White Pointer’ territory! No thank you! We admired from ashore.

The next morning, being Sunday, was market morning at the Museum Village, so after breakfast we walked the 2km’s into town to stroll through the markets. We enjoyed browsing through the eco store and purchased a bread bag for the BT and a packet of washing powder sheets. We thought we would try these as an option to avoid needing to carry a 1kg heavy washing powder box. We then wandered through town and ended up at the James St. Precinct for coffee and a piece of lemon meringue pie and orange, ricotta cheesecake. Yum!!! On our walk back to the caravan park we took a selfie in front of the iconic Whale Tail Sculpture and admired the crystal, blue water along the Esperance foreshore.

After a cup of tea and a relax, we were on the bikes, heading to the Lucky Bay Brewery (6km ride). What a great place, with a lovely family atmosphere. The lovely, local bloke behind the bar organised a tasting paddle to my liking and Sippy ordered a pint of the Indian Pale Ale, which got the tick of approval obviously as he ordered another of the same later in the afternoon. As it started to cool down they lit the gorgeous open fire pit, but we headed off shortly after, wishing to navigate back to the BT before dark.

The next day we were keen to explore the amazing coastline, so we headed off for the self-drive tour of the Great Ocean Drive. Our first stop was at the Rotary Lookout, which gave us great views back over Esperance and down to West Beach. We walked the 2km trail around the headland, admiring and photographing the abundant, beautiful wildflowers, finishing with gorgeous views of Lovers Cove. It was then back into the car to travel onto Blue Haven for our first swim in the absolutely amazing, crystal-clear water. Although a bit cool (a big bit cool) we relished the opportunity to swim in such pristine waters. It was truly magnificent. Our next stop was Twilight Beach, 10kms from town and voted most popular beach by the locals. It was not hard to see why with crystal water, gentle rolling waves, snow white sand and beautiful large rocks positioned off-shore, providing an amazing vista. We had another refreshing swim, a little lie in the sun, followed by a picnic lunch on the sand. Next stop on the coastal drive was Observatory Point, which involved climbing more stairs up to another awesome lookout with more spectacular views of the coastline. We then passed Nine and Ten Mile Beaches before pulling in for our last stop at Eleven Mile Beach. Eleven Mile Beach had protected bays on both sides of the headland. We put up the drone to capture some great shots of the lengthy lagoon, which provided magical contrasting blues in the calm shallows. Much to our horror we also noticed a 4WD that was well and truly bogged and hanging over the edge of a sand cliff – some silly local lads that probably should have known better. We finished the coastal drive by looping past the Pink Lake (that was not pink) and then back along Pink Lake Road to town. It was then off to Woolworths to stock up on groceries for our Cape Le Grand NP stay and trek across the Nullarbor.