Today was a reasonably early start (8.30 ish) for the 60 odd km drive east to Cape Le Grande and Lucky Bay. To say that this particular place has held high expectations and anticipation for us is probably an understatement. From the outset of the planning for this trip we have mulled over this location, read travel info and magazine articles, which only fuelled our determination to go there. We had, initially, intended to free camp there but with school holidays, a long weekend and ordinary weather interfering we ended up basing ourselves in Esperance. The trip out was interesting with the farmland giving way to some interesting landscapes once inside the national park area. On the way in we passed a replica of Stonehenge, which we had been thinking of going to see, glad we didn’t now as the view from the road was uninspired. I guess there will be people out there that think it’s great but not us.
 |
| Landscape on way into Cape Le Grande |
 |
| Rock formations |
 |
| Whispering rock near Hellfire Bay |
 |
| Wild flower |
Once in the national park there are heaps of natural formations to keep you busy and some very interesting monoliths dominating the landscape as we wound our way into the Cape. We stopped at the Hellfire Bay lookout and saw some spectacular coast line and decided we would call in to Hellfire Beach on our way back. First major stop was Lucky Bay which was and would be a nice spot except for the seaweed, in fact the whole coastline in the South West is suffering at the moment with huge amounts of seaweed deposited on the beaches from the recent storms. I estimated it to be over a metre deep in some places. We took a short drive along the beach and then headed for Rossitter Bay which is about 6km further on by dirt road. Same issue here with the whole spectacle dulled by the weed.
 |
| Hellfire bay |
 |
| Lucky Bay |
 |
| Hellfire Bay looking west |
 |
| Hellfire Bay |
Don’t get me wrong the sites and the pristine nature of the place is not to be underestimated but the smell of rotting seaweed is not for everyone. We returned to Lucky Bay for a spot of lunch and we were entertained by a family of kangaroos and the humans annoying them. Lunch over we headed back to Hellfire Bay and as it turned out the highlight of the day. This is an incredible little bay and was one of the few not impacted by seaweed. We spent a little time here getting our feet wet and enjoying the place. Next stop was Cape Le Grande and whilst not disappointed I think our expectations may have got a bit skewed. Again don’t get me wrong, it is still a wonderful place but the pick for me was Hellfire Bay followed by Lucky Bay. It sometimes difficult when writing these blogs because you have so many ahhhhh moments it all becomes a bit blasé. There is no doubt for me we are the lucky country and are blessed with a magnificent country and its trips like these that just reinforce that reality for me. The sites and beauty of this area are no doubt some of the best I can imagine and we have only scratched the surface. So it was after a pretty full day of white sand, a bit of sun, sea and surf it was time to head for home. We tried our luck again off the tanker pier late in the afternoon, yesterday I had caught a king George whiting just on 30cm and Gaz got a nice size Calamari and apparently there have been some good size catches off the pier. It was reasonable successful with another calamari and a whiting. Bit of bad luck for Gaz as he hooked a Calamari which let go of the squid jig just as he pulled it out of the water. There was I fair bit of tension on the line and when I looked around it was imbedded horizontally in Gaz’s forehead. A bit of an “Oh shit” moment, Laura managed to extract the jig without much pain but a lesson for all I think. Tomorrow is our last day in Esperance and officially the start to our return to reality – homeward bound
