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Published: December 19th 2009
Day 233 - Hopetoun to Cape le Grand National Park (East of Esperance)
We’d been told so many good things about this little caravan park here at Hopetoun so it seems a shame for us not to stay longer and enjoy the beautiful setting. It’s nestled in the scrub behind a fabulous, tranquil beach but as it is we have limited time here because we’ve spent too long partying in Perth, the truth will out so might aswell be honest!
When we arrived late yesterday afternoon I cheekily asked if they could be flexible with our check out time today. Of course not being part of a huge chain of caravan parks the attitude is gloriously different and there’s no red tape to cut through so the answer was a simple ‘Yes that’s no problem’. It really didn’t seem to be an issue so I didn’t actually ask what time we needed to vacate the pitch by, I’ve sort of taken it for granted that so long as we’re gone by mid-day there won’t be a problem and as such we’re now heading off to climb a mountain!
Fitzgerald River National Park is on our doorstep from here
so this morning we’re going to get a higher view from the summit of East Mt Barren. A short but glorious drive takes us to the start of the walking trail where we’re presented with some information about the prevention of Die Back, a fungal disease which can be transported unknowingly by walkers. It causes root rot within woody shrubs found at the base of the mountain and these shrubs are relied heavily upon by local wildlife such as the Honey Possum. The destruction of the shrubs could curtail the ability of the animal to survive in the area and we certainly don’t want to see that happen.
We gave our shoes a jolly good scrub using the brush and tray provided and then tucked it all safely away again. The walk starts with a board walk which has been introduced to further more protect this delicate environment. It lures you into a false sense of security, you start to think that somehow the walk ‘up the mountain’ is going to be a breeze, infact there might even be a lift! Getting delusional never helps and sure enough when the boardwalk runs out the ‘track’ disappears and the ground
beneath our feet goes upwards at a fairly strong rate. I cursed for a short while as my beloved crocs (walking shoes) start to become beastly when the back strap continuously undoes itself every time I take a step uphill! Interesting timing, let’s see if they last the day!
It worth the climb up the rough track and over the various boulders and the various wild flowers dotted around are a delight. The view from the top is fabulous, a panorama of the national park, the Eyre range and the southern ocean. The walk has taken us 311 metres above sea level but we’re not sure the morning is clear enough to see the Recherche Archipelago near Esperance which are 150kms away but can usually be seen from this point!
Darryl of course excels in climbing the highest of the peaks while I wobble on the fattest, roundest one I can find. The weather isn’t the brightest this morning but who needs boiling hot sunshine when you’re climbing a mountain so the coolness is probably a blessing!
Thank you to the ‘Friends of Fitzgerald River National Park’ who produced the leaflets we found in the information box
on our way back down, shame we didn’t open the box on the way up but there we are!!
We should really do this sort of thing more often to start our day, it’s great. Beautiful views, early morning exercise, it’s all good.
Full of beans we decide to take a look at the free camp spot we nearly drove to last night, good job we didn’t bother as it doesn’t exist! I should have smelled a rat when the description in the book doesn’t match the positioning of the site on the map. The description says ‘17km West of Hopetoun’ and the positioning of the site on the map is to 17km to the east! We met another couple who had actually towed their caravan out here only to find the turn around and a beach that they couldn’t fish off so they weren’t best pleased. The chap spoke with an English accent and although we suspected they were now living in Australia something compelled me to ask where they were from originally. “Derby” came the reply! Well isn’t that funny, even funnier when he went on to tell me he went to school in Newhall which
is approximately 4 miles from our house back home in the UK!
We’d already driven slightly further along the road and there is another turn off (Thirteen Mile Beach funnily enough!) which you could camp in so we let them know. They’re yet another couple who are living on the road, on their pension having sold their home. Good on em we say, you couldn’t get a better lifestyle.
It’s from this point that the road goes to corrugations, like most of the outback roads do, but this one leads to Starvation Boat Harbour which houses the start of the Rabbit Proof Fence. It’s another 45kms of corrugations and although it’s tempting to drive all that way just to look at a fence that didn’t actually work, we decide to head back to the caravan park and get on the road to our next destination.
Showered, packed and ready for anything we hit the road to the town with reputedly the best beaches in the whole of Australia - Esperance. That’s a big statement to make, we should check that out…except we don’t really have time. Now that might sound crazy but we’ve decided not to actually
stay in Esperance but to head out to Cape Le Grand one of the national parks 50kms further east. We were told back in Kalbarri that the camp sites at the national park are beautiful, glorious, stunning, divine but “you’ll not get in” was the last line of the sentence every time!
When we got to Esperance I made a dash into the visitors centre to gather information about Cape le Grand. We rely heavily on Camps 5 and with the exception of the missing camp site this morning we’ve found it to be pretty spot on. If it doesn’t specifically say ‘not suitable for caravans’ then we tend to go for it and if there’s no mention of dirt road (which invariably means the dreaded corrugations) then likewise but sometimes I just feel the need to check and today was one of those times.
It makes me laugh when I find the staff in visitors centres, as nice as they are, often don’t seem to cater for the touring travellers looking for basic answers to basic questions. Things like ‘are the roads sealed going into the park’ or ‘is the site suitable for caravans’, neither of which
the young lady could confidently answer but I’ll put a $1 down that says she could have told me all about any number of tours available. I guess it’s just a different angle that I look at things from as it’s rare for us to require knowledge on tours as we generally don’t do any! She did give me some useful looking leaflets though so I didn’t leave empty handed!
We find our way to Woolworths and stock up on the few supplies we require and post the last of the Christmas cards. Then we were off in the general direction of Cape le Grand, following the map from the visitors centre because Tom Tom hadn’t heard of the national park. There are two camp sites indicated on the map and in Camps 5, Le Grand Beach and Lucky Bay and the time was soon upon us to decide where we would lay our weary heads. We were feeling lucky so went with Lucky Bay and what a terrific choice we made, it’s stunning so as we drive down into the campsite we’re silently praying that Alan’s prediction of ‘you’ll not get in’ doesn’t come true!
There are
plenty of pitches free which is a relief and as we drive down through the site, a lady rushes in our direction to introduce herself as the campground host, Helen. She pointed out the free sites and the amenities block which has hot and cold running water, plus just down the hill there’s a camp kitchen. It’s all mod cons here!
We opted for the site opposite where we’d parked which just happened to be next to Helen and her husband Charlie, they jokingly said they usually stopped partying just after mid-night … they clearly didn’t know who they were dealing with!! Ha Ha!
The information board outside the amenity block indicates that the weather for tomorrow is pretty over-cast followed by a bright sunny day on Thursday, the day we’re intending to move on. Charlie told us that it was 44 degrees here yesterday and the ocean was still freezing cold!
Once we’d set up there was time for a quick walk to the beach where we found numerous kangaroos lolloping around amusing our fellow tourists. Charlie was right about the ocean temperature, it wasn’t warm so there would be no swim before dinner for us!
and then it was back to blog writing which tonight was a useful exercise as the heat from the laptop kept me nice and warm - it was surprisingly chilly outside!
Darryl is continuing his winning streak at Rummikub, I clearly need to concentrate more and must stop multi-tasking when playing!!
Dar and Sar
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Jan Kettle
non-member comment
'freezing cold sea'
Now come on guys, don't forget that you are British - surely the sea can't be THAT cold?!! If you want cold then pop back here for some snow! xxx Mum K