Esperance

Very hot day in Esperance today.  There sure are lots of sunburnt Poms on board tonight.  It’s a bit like walking around a beetroot farm here this afternoon at the pool area.  Thanks to Luke we took the option to go to the Cape Le Grande National Park.  We had another tour guide experience.  We moored about 500 metres from the jetty and got tenders in and got loaded up to one of the local school buses.   We had another old bloke who didn’t know how to use the sound system on the bus.  His driver was old enough to be his father and they were both of the opinion, “This new technological digital stuff confuses us.”  This didn’t help us of course.  We had a half hour drive to the National Park and he talked the whole way and nobody on the bus could hear a thing.  He would start loud enough but the microphone would progressively get further away from his lips and by the 10^th word all we could hear was a mumble.  Very unfortunate because other than Perth where we terminate the cruise, this is the only WA experience and it wouldn’t encourage anyone to return.  Maybe we’ve been spoilt after having the best tour guide in Australia on our last two WA visits!!!

Despite the lack of information, Cape Le Grande certainly made up for it in spades.  The beaches are pristine, the sand is white as snow and is so fine it feels like clay.  We cannot believe the colours in the water, from the clear white shallows to the deep blue further out.  We took a thousand photos and I’m sure you’ll enjoy them all, just a shame we had to limit them!!!  We visited Hellfire Bay, Lucky Bay (where we had a swim…water temperature 20 degrees with no sharks spotted) and Stonehenge where some locals have reconstructed (in the exact replica, except it’s complete) the stones of Stonehenge in pink granite.  We were a bit skeptical at first but it has been very well done but maybe a bit touristy?  Saw lots of bushfire damage on the way to the Park, you may remember it was about 3 months ago and 4 people were killed in the area.  It’s amazing how quickly the landscape is regenerating.

Came back on board midafternoon and had swim in the pool to cool down then it was about drink time.  Watched as a late afternoon thunder storm blow into town and we had a bit of rain as we sipped our afternoon refreshments.

Sunrise near Esperance

On the tender and ready to tour

Hellfire Bay

Vernon rock climbing

Found a friend up on the rocks sunning himself.

Hellfire bay

Feet in the water

Amazing colours

Amazing wife

Frenchmans Peak

Lucky Bay

About to have a dip

Great background for a swim

Stonehenge

Damage from bush fires cleaned up

Forestry damaged by bushfire - blue gum

Damaged scrub near Esperance

Sculpture on the foreshore - with our ship in the background

Clocktower near the railway museum

Our ship waiting for us on return from Esperance

Storm developing over the town.