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Published: March 26th 2012
27 Esperance 26 March 2012
Decided to break the journey to Esperance and stayed at a (very) small town called Ravensthorpe. Had an all in one shop, an IGA and hardware store. Across the road was the Aust Post shop and nearby the only clothing shop in the street, it was having a sale – all size 9 shoes half price! The camping ground was equally quirky with old rusty bits of farm equipment lying/placed around the site. However, the facilities were clean and good, which is the main thing.
Next morning to Esperance, which claims to have the best beaches in Australia, and they could be right. The sand is pure white, very fine and the water is clear and turquoise in colour. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been the best, we’ve had cloud and SE winds for the last 2 weeks, which have reduced the appearance a bit.
Esperance has only one commercial wharf which loads out containers, wheat, and, yes, iron ore. And, no surprises, the wharf and approaches are going to be expanded.
We took a day trip out to Woody Island which is one of
The authors
On boat trip to Recherche Archipelagothe Recherché Archipelago close offshore, there are over 100 islets in the group and lots of exposed rocks. There’s a big SW swell through the area which makes for magnificent wave scenes on the many many rocks in the archipelago and the coastline. Lots of seals, sea lions, and birds including the white fronted sea eagle and the Cape Barren goose.
On Saturday we went to the annual Condingup Fair, which is a bit like the Paparoa A & P Show, but minus the horses and the axe men. From there to Cape Arid and Cape Le Grand National Parks. Lots more beaches – all magnificent.
We played the Esperance Golf Club, which was a good track, lots of doglegs and lots of water. Good grass greens too. 5900m from the men’s club tees. Don is now 3 up on Pattie.
Drove 380km inland today and are now at Kalgoorlie. Lots of wheat and sheep and cattle in the beginning, then it went back to your usual Aust bush – gum trees and scrub. Very dry looking. We passed at least 12 mines in the 180km from Norseman to Kalgoorlie. Haven’t
found out what they are digging up yet, but the guess is nickel, or iron ore, and/or gold.
Scroll down past the ads, etc for more photos.
PandD
26 March 2012
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Rosemary
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Those beaches sure did look nice. Was it possible to swim there or were there nasties in the water. Have you both settled back as though you hadn't been away? Nothing changes here except the weather! 3 fine days in a row and another today and tomorrow so we are all feeling as if summer has arrived at last and last night we went to Waiheke to have dinner and it was positively hot where we were. Phoebe was 18 on Friday and we went over there to celebrate and had a very nice evening. 4 out of 6 grandies left school is a bit scarey as it makes us realise how quickly the years are flying. News from Oz is horrid but Vicky is still trying to be brave and cope with it. The best thing she is doing (for her head) is opening a shop in Hawthorn about the end of April. It is going to handle higher level product and will have some stuff which no one else has. We hope it goes well for her sake. Matt says that the higher end products in America are selling well so hopefully that happens in Oz. In the meantime it gives her something happy to think of and she sure needs that. Dawson of course, is wonderful and he has been making display beds and tables out of recycled timber. Michael is in Roma for quite a while apparently. 3 weeks out there and 1 week in Brisbane. Vicky thinks he is a little lonely there but it won't be long until the job starts and they work 7 days a week - no time to be lonely then. Of course Ingrid is lonely without him in Brisbane but she was looking for a flatmate so that should help. David is still being David and needs a boot up the backside to get going. He was 23 the other day! I am off to bridge today and bowls all day tomorrow. Charles hasn't been playing much golf mainly because something else seems to come up which actually takes precedence. We have booked to go to the USA at the end of August flying to LA, Phoenix and then on to NY. We were hoping for a week on our own in the apartment but Mr. Bossy Boots (who thinks his parents need guidance when we go to the USA) is arranging so much that week that we will not be having a week on our own. We are going to the US Open a Broadway show and a special restaurant that Charles found in the N Yorker. Matt (and Paula) cannot resist organizing us when we are there and we just trot along in the back seat so to speak and it is great. We will go up to their bach for about 10 days I think. No other news at the moment. We will write again soon and hope you keep enjoying your time there and look after yourselves. Love R. & C.