Esperance & Cape LeGrande 11/12 to 22/12

Esperance is reputed to have the prettiest beaches in Australia, and I must say this is an accurate description. They may not necessarily be the best swimming beaches but they certainly are very beautiful. This is the most easterly town on the south coast of W.A. and the main business centre is right on the shores of the very large Esperance Bay. Today this busy and attractive town relies quite heavily on its busy port, which is prominent in both exports and imports. Leaving the port in great quantities are iron ore, nickel, grain and woodchips. Imports are comprised mainly of fertilizer and sulphur (used in the processing of nickel). Because of the very strict and innovative handling procedures enforced by the proud locals, their town is unlike most other port towns. It is clean and sparkling without the usual covering of red dust found in other ports that handle iron ore and other minerals. The actual port area is quite small and the channels narrow and restricted; yet it handles some quite large ships. This is achieved by the use of two very special tugs, and even though they are not all that big they are, in fact, the most powerful and agile tugs in Australia. Once again we were quite fortunate to be in town over the weekend because on Saturdays and Sundays the local Apex club conducts tours around the port. There is no need to book you just wait by the port admin. Building at 1.20p.m. and for just $5 they put you on a bus for a 1½-hour tour with commentary by one of the club members. This is the only way you can get a close up look at the port facilities because the high level of security means there is no public access.

There is a Grand Ocean Drive around the western end of the bay and your first stop should be the lookout high on the hill just past the port. From the viewing platform there is a 360-degree view of the town, the bay and beaches and some of the more than 100 islands of the Recherche Archipelago. We made numerous stops along the drive to admire the beautiful beaches, all very attractive, but the most impressive would be Twilight Beach. The drive eventually takes you past the wind farm that provides a significant proportion of the district’s power needs. Esperance is not connected to the state grid and therefore relies on its own power station with generators that can run on natural gas or diesel. So the supplement that the wind farm supplies is most important.

After 3 days in town and still no mail, thanks to a postal strike in the busy lead up to Christmas (makes you question the sincerity of the unions) we decided to head out to the national park. For camping in the N.P. there are 2 choices, Lucky Bay or Le Grande Beach. It seems most people head to Lucky Bay where the beach has been voted the best and whitest in the country, but the camping area (for vans and trailers), although large, is open and bare. We chose Le Grande Beach where the campground is smaller and more intimate with individual sites surrounded by low coastal heath affording a bit of privacy. The sites are just a short stroll from the glistening white sand of the beach that stretches almost all the way back to Esperance. The water is sparkling clean and blue and we wasted no time in jumping in because the temperature had risen to 44 degrees, the hottest day we had encountered on our trip so far. Both campgrounds have flush loos and solar heated showers in modern brick buildings and there is plenty of beautiful fresh water pumped from a nearby spring.

We spent 8 fantastic days at Le Grande taking in the nearby sights with walks around the adjoining bays (Hellfire Bay, Thistle Cove, Lucky Bay and Rossiter Bay) and even conquered the challenging and strenuous climb to the summit of Frenchman Peak. During that time we travelled back into town (130Km round trip) for some essential supplies and to collect the mail that again had not arrived due to the aforementioned strike. Our original intention was to stay until after Xmas but that would have meant another return trip to town for the mail (we wanted it before Xmas) so once we were sure the mail was there we packed up, headed into town, collected the mail and the travelled north towards Kalgoorlie.