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Published: April 5th 2011
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Monday 4th April – happy birthday to Anna, our nephew Grant’s wife. We hope you had a lovely day. No doubt you’re busy preparing for your up-coming trip to the UK and Canada.
We had a nice and relaxed start to the day, I made a few sandwiches, we loaded our swimming gear into the car (including wet-suits) and, with the sun blazing down from a clear blue sky, we set off on a trip along The Coastal Scenic Drive. It was a drive that fully endorsed why we remember Esperance so fondly from our time here 8 years ago. Last time it was a bit too much of a fleeting visit, but today we took our time visiting every scenic car park along the 20 kms outward stretch of the Coastal Drive. It started with a purpose-built lookout on the hill just on the outskirts of Esperance which provided a splendid view of the town, the islands, the long sweeping bay of turquoise blue water and the Capes of Le Grande and Arid in the far distance. It set the scene for what became a truly delightful day along a truly beautiful stretch of coast.
There followed a
series of beautiful, mainly deserted beaches any one of which would have provided an ideal location to spend a day. Our favourite was Twilight Beach which, in the past, has been voted Australia’s best beach. We could see why - it was slightly busier than the other beaches we had passed but we stopped for some time to have our mid-morning cuppa and to admire the view. We spotted what was, potentially, a perfect, small, calm area of the beach at which to enjoy the water but, for now, we carried on to the next spot which was Observatory Point. The views across the Southern Ocean were sensational in all directions and, at the right time of year, the point is an ideal spot for viewing Southern Right Whales. Several more stops were enjoyed along the road as far as Eleven Mile Beach including one that was advertised as a Free Beach, which in Aussie terms is a beach where nude bathing is allowed. We resisted the temptation and both agreed that our favourite place was Twilight Beach. So we re-traced our steps and went back to Twilight where we planned to have our lunch and to see what transpired.
A suitably placed bench overlooking the beach was our picnic spot where we were entertained by the occasional bather including two youngsters who had swum across the bay to one of the islands which was made up of fascinating rock formations. A few more people began to arrive, perhaps attracted by an ice-cream van which was plying its trade in the car park – amazingly, the only ice-cream van we’ve seen throughout our trip. Sun tan lotion was essential as the temperature had risen and by now it was probably just into the thirties. After letting our lunch go down we both agreed that it was too good an opportunity to miss so we prepared ourselves to venture down onto the beach and test the water temperature. When we got there, the only two people who, at that time, had been bathing, left so we had the beach to ourselves. By this time, the young couple we could see on the island had made their way back and were just meandering along the beach. We got into conversation with them and they were the most delightful young, Italian couple you could wish to meet. They were probably in their
early twenties and they, too, were spending 18 months in Aus though they had working visas and were just taking a break from their current jobs in Margaret River – a place we may well visit in a couple of weeks. They were so enthusiastic about everything that it was so easy to talk to them and half an hour seemed to slip by in no time.
Eventually they returned to their camper van and we made it into the water – utter bliss. It was clear, virtually calm, deepened gradually and was just so inviting. We spent a long time in the water and were eventually joined by another older couple (poms on holiday) and a lad. It was such a good choice for us both to swim together (I had swum in the Keppel Islands and Graham had swum at Robe). In due course we returned to the car and virtually “drip-dried” in no time. We’d had a lovely time and still hadn’t used our wet-suits but they weren’t needed as the water was so comfortable without them. We agreed that it would be an ideal spot to return to later in the week together with our
snorkeling gear. There wasn’t a lot of sea-life to view but it would be a perfect place to get back into the habit of using goggles, snorkels and flippers again.
Once we’d dragged ourselves away, but not before having an ice-cream from the van, we meandered back into town to do a bit of shopping. We needed to collect some important mail from the Post Office, to refuel the car and to re-fill one of the spare containers. Fuel was very reasonably priced in Esperance (that is, in the current world of huge prices that we now live in). At the same time, following two very entertaining Skype calls where, at the other end there were webcams (Sarah and Barb), we ventured into the electrical shop – just to see what they might cost. Needless to say we couldn’t resist buying one so, once we get to know how to set it up, we’ll be webcamming people right, left and centre!!
Back at the CP we booked in for two more nights (six in all) which meant that we would get an extra night free. I had a play with the webcam – it was a bit scary
as I could see myself and how I would appear to others!! I’ll definitely need to tidy up the caravan to make it more presentable to the world at large!! We just need to find something to rest the webcam on at the right height so that more than just our necks are visible! Then it was off to bed.
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Barb
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web cam
I am proud to be the first recipient of the Kettles , via their webcam ! A brilliant surprise to see them "in the flesh ".See you again soon . Love Barb x