Esperance

400km, 6 hours, & half a dozen photos of a diversity of terrain I never imagined possible of Australia, and we arrived at the coastal town of 'Esperance'. We had now covered 750km of our 'free' 1400km limit (day 2) and realised the chap at the hire-care centre had been slightly unrealistic with his estimate of what distance we would cover - purely unintentional, I'm sure. Similar to when you first cross the line into red with a bank account, we swiftly assumed a 'F*ck it' philosophy, and vowed to not worry about looking at the meter again.

Named after a French naval vessel 'L'Esperance' that took shelter from a storm in the bay, the town is used by many Australians in WA as a holiday destination, and is famous for having some of the best beaches in the country. Armed with memories of beaches in Thailand, I was a little pessimistic as to what this area could offer in competition.

We spent the first full day taking the car around the 'Ocean Drive' - said to be the most beautiful in Australia. Starting at Dempster Head, the road takes you past Blue Haven Beach, Salmon Beach, Twilight Beach, Nine Mile Beach, Ten Mile Lagoon, Butter Harbour Nature Reserve, Eleven Mile Beach Road, and Pink Lake.

These beaches were pretty impressive, and thanks to an the info board at Pink Lake we learned the cause of the pinkish colour seen in lakes on our drive down to Esperance - it results from different proportions of a salt tolerant algae and a pink helophilic bacterium - obviously. The only problem is that the beaches weren't really cutting the mustard. Didn't quite make the grade. They couldn't compete with the white sands of Ko Lipe, or the turquoise waters of Ko Nang Yuan. Something pretty spectacular would need to be shown to gain a top-ranking position.

The next day we drove around the coast to Cape Le Grand National Park. A short way past 'Frenchman's Peak' (highest geographical point in the vicinity) the first beach rose into view, separated the green from blue, and slapped our senses so hard our jaws dropped and hit the brakes. My breath was stolen and wasn't returned again until the last beach was out of sight. The following pictures from Lucky Bay, Thistle Cove & Hellfire Bay manage to describe with a vocabulary more diverse than literally possible (for my limited mind), just how wrong expectations were and how amazing this place really is.

These three photos don't do the area justice by a long way, but then neither would a million. Only the unhindered visionary experience of actually being there manages to scratch the surface of being able appreciate nature's exuberance for creativity. And then, with every additional joyfull moment, that the vision is played again from memory, it's appreciation increases infinitely. Nearly every other sight, of every second, of every day, serves to illustrate how beautifully & rare areas like this are.

Truly satisfied with what we had seen in Esperance, we decided to relax on our last day (the previous days were obviously very stressful), and just stay in the area nearest to the campsite. We walked to major groyne along the beach that is used by fisherman of the town and sea - dolphins had been seen the previous day working together to collect their lunch.

In the afternoon we visited the jetty in hope of seeing a couple of other local celebrities - two sea lions. Unfortunately this experience left a salty taste in my mouth. Whilst capturing a glorious 'Kodak moment' of a sea lion at play, my recently purchased sunglasses fell from my head, down into the murky water below the jetty. As they were new and expensive, and I'm stubborn and often stupid, I ignored the warning signs about swimming near sea lions, donned my snorkel and facemask and jumped in to try and retrieve them. Thankfully the adrenaline kept me calm (oblivious) during the ordeal, but the sea lion became visibly agitated, and Lucie sported a expression of 'What the **** are you doing?". The poor visibility of the water and strong current stopped me from finding them, but I tried to stay positive about the experience. After all, I doubt I would've been inclined to take a swim with wild sea lions in any other circumstance. So, if you see a rather groovy looking sea lion sporting a pair of Arnette sunglasses in the future, you know the story behind where he found them.