Esperance Roadtrip: Days 4-6

We started off the morning strolling around the Esperance town center and doing a spot of shopping. Some tea and an amazing Maple Walnut Danish pastry later at Downtown Espresso and we made our way to the National Park!

Cape Le Grand National Park is renown for its sand: blindingly white and so fine that it squeaks underfoot when you walk on it.

Hellfire Bay

Next up was Lucky Bay. Look who we found there!

We decided to do a "short, easy" hike between Lucky Bay and Thistle Cove in the park. We expected it to be a 1km hike and for it to take an hour. It was actually a 5km round trip and took us closer to 2.5 hours with all of our stops to take in the views, swim, and soak up the local flora and fauna:

"Take a photo without my hat so your family won't be mad at me!" - Weronika, removing her Yankees cap for the picture

We headed off to the Duke of Orleans Caravan Park to camp for the night and watched the sunset from Wharton Beach

Dinner at the Condy Tavern just up the road and then off to bed for an early travel day.

Quick stop at Little Wharton Beach before leaving

We stopped into Lucky Bay for a second visit before leaving town and then hit the road for Denmark.

We left around noon, stopped in Esperance for some road snacks at the fancy grocery store (hello, expensive organic hummus), and then spent the afternoon driving to Boston Brewing! Had a really yummy salad dinner and then found our way to a free campsite nearby. It was located right on the beach so we fell asleep listening to the waves crash.

Next morning we were up early (sleeping in the back of a car on a thin foam mattress will do that), so the sunrise was an accidental benefit.

We were supposed to meet Nat and Wiebke in Margaret River by noon, so the early start was a good idea. We stopped into the Denmark Bakery for some breakfast (incredible pies, y'all. And the quiche was next level good) and then got back on the road.

We got such an early start that we figured we could stop off at Lights Beach for a quick stroll... And then stopped again to enjoy some wildflowers... And then stopped again for a bathroom break and a cuppa tea in an adorable town called Nannup... And next thing we knew, we were late. Surprise surprise.

Nat and Wiebke are beautiful, so they let us off the hook for being late and we headed straight to Cheeky Monkey Brewery for some lunch. After that, on to Vasse Felix, the first winery established in the Margaret River region!

Vasse Felix

We went to The Common Bistrot near Margs for dinner and were stoked to find out they had a band performing! They were so good, it was an amazing end to day one of the Girls Weekend!!

The Common: a nice photo

Weronika wanted to wear her sun glasses for our group photo and I didn't approve:

Esperance Roadtrip: Days 1-3

I have some updates for you in the pipeline from my dive on the Navy Pier (I finally did it!) and my 4 days in Karijini National Park (incredible hikes through watery gorges), but right now I'm on a road trip with Weronika and after today we realized that this is gonna be a multiple-posts trip. So! New plan: send updates from this trip and then circle back to the others!

Sunday afternoon I flew down to Perth from Exmouth. Weronika picked me up at the airport and we spent the evening hanging out in Attadale with Wiebke and Nat and their new housemate Elisa who is delightful. Had some excellent Indian food and generally reassured Wiebke that we wouldn't have TOO much fun without her. She and Nat will meet up with us on Friday anyway, halfway through our trip.

My rosemary plant in Attadale is thriving without me!

Yesterday morning we grabbed a rental car and hit the road by 9am to drive the 8 hours to Esperance on the southern coast of Western Australia. Halfway through the drive is an Australian icon: Wave Rock. Obviously we stopped for a photo.

Collecting the rental

Wave Rock!

Made it to Esperance a bit after 5 and we were HUNGRY. Stopped by the local pub, The Pier Hotel, for some dinner and then headed to our Airbnb to get settled in. It's an adorable garden studio and I would happily live there forever.

Went to the beach, a 5 minute walk from the Airbnb, and then headed off to bed.

Today we stopped into the Esperance Hot French Bread Bakery for breakfast and fell in love. So many pastries. Strolled around town for a little while and then began the Great Ocean Drive. It's a 40k circuit road and has some of Australia's best beaches along the way (who voted on this I could not tell you, but I understand why they were elected).

Snake in the road

We saw a pod of maybe 25 dolphins while we were here!

Taking photos of wild flowers

Twilight Beach was maybe my favorite

Twilight Beach

We were pretty exhausted by the end of the drive (so many stairs!), so Weronika took a little cat nap while I showered back at our rental. Off to a locally-recommended beach for sunset and then did a 25 minute drive to a town north of here, Gibson, for dinner at another local recommended pub.

Tomorrow: Cape Le Grand National Park and Lucky Bay!