Esperance, WA

Esperance lived up to it's reputation for the white sandy beaches and clear blue water, but unfortunately we saw a lot clouds and rain too. We still had lots of fun though. We did the scenic drive around town, but couldn't see Pink Lake for all the fog. There are endless little bays that would be great for snorkeling in better weather.

They have a pretty awesome esplanade on the foreshore in town, with a skate park, a duck pond and a very cool playground. The slide was super high and super fast - Bridie came down and flew off the end like lightning. Maybe not recommended for 2 year olds. 🙈

We visited Cape Le Grand National Park and Lucky Bay. We couldn't see Frenchman's Peak at first for all the fog but eventually saw it a bit later and it was quite impressive up close.

Lucky Bay gave us one of those WOW moments when we drove over the hill and you see the bay. Picture perfect even in the fog. We walked along the beach - the sand was very unique. It was so fine and felt like walking on snow. Saul and the kids used it to have "snow ball" fights. The kids also wrote their names in the sand.

When the sun finally came out the kids decided that the rocks at the edge of the bay were a good spot to have a little swim. We didn't bring bathers because it wasn't swimming weather when we left, so underwear was the new bathers. There was quite a bit of high pitched squealing as the water was still cold but once they were in it was fun.

The bay and islands of Esperance form a very unique archipelago. We were fascinated by it so decided to take a boat tour to explore it a bit more. We are so glad we did. It was an amazing experience. We were blessed with gorgeous weather on the day we went on the boat. Zara took a while to find her sea legs - she wasn't sea sick as such, just anxious about the boat tipping over and getting eaten by a shark. The host and owner of the boat, was very kind to Zara and allowed her to be the first person to feed the sea eagles. This took her mind off the any potential sharks and then she enjoyed the ride after that. 

Elsie and Zara were both lucky enough to feed the sea eagles twice. They are amazing creatures. So big and only second in size to the Wedge Tail Eagle. I have videos of feeding the eagles but without wifi I can't load them on to the blog. I will put them on social media instead. 

We boated around lots of the little islands, learnt about the history of what the islands have been used for in the past and saw some sea lions, lot of birds and we were lucky enough to see some dolphins as well.

Esperance still operates a shipping port for grain and woodchips and we saw some big ships as well. The kids were amazed at the size of the big anchors on the ship, especially after they watched the anchor on our boat come up and compared the size.

Our caravan park was a little bit questionable, despite the kids meeting a friendly little girl the same age as Bridie. They had lots of fun playing together. We left 1 night early and drove a little bit out of town to Quagi Beach. This was a pleasant little camp with a beach that had very cool shells, and fun rock pools. This is also where we saw hundreds of amazing Banksia plants in their natural environment.