Streaky Bay to Esperance

After some washing, a small shop and rest at Streaky Bay, we travelled on the Flinders Highway to Ceduna.  Here we joined the Eyre Highway for our journey west.    Roadside vegetation seemed much greener than our last trip.  We had good views of the Bight.   As it is not whale season yet, we did not detour in to the Head of Bight.  With a cool, cloudy day and a slight tail wind, we had a good drive to the Border Village for fuel ($2.09/l)and quarantine inspection – no donations this time.  After Eucla and Mundrabilla, our stop for the night was at the Jilah Rockhole camp.  It was quite warm, but the night quickly cooled and a blanket was needed.

Friday  -  Our elevation increased today as we reached the Madura Pass, then Cocklebiddy and at Caiguna the longest straight stretch of road in Australia – 146.6kms – commenced, and finished at Balladonia.    Here we had a fuel ($2.04/l) and lunch stop before continuing to Norseman.

 

The Long Straight

At Norseman we turned south along the Coolgardi-Esperance Highway for 15kms to Dundas Rocks for our overnight camp.  The night was much cooler, and the doona was also required. 

Saturday -  We left Dundas Rocks for an easy 2 hour run in to Esperance.   The winds increased from the s/w, and a few drops of rain appeared.    We chose the Top Tourist park on the waterfront at Esperance, and were able to have the same site as our last visit.  A visit to the visitor information centre was a must to check on national park campsites and pick up some new brochures.    The pantry and fuel tanks were also replenished.  The waterfront from just west of the caravan park to the western end of the town is fenced off due to reclamation works.   The jetty with resident sea lion, which we saw last time, was not accessible.

 

Esperance Foreshore

East towards Cape Le Grand

Sunday -  I decided to trust the weather bureau and did 2 loads of washing this morning.  It was cloudy most of the day, but by 4pm the sky was blue and the washing was dry.   We will head east tomorrow morning to Cape Le Grand National Park.   If there are not campsites available, we will continue to Lucky Bay, then to Orleans Bay Caravan Park as a last resort.   Apparently it is blue spanner crab season, so there are lots of fishermen out and about.   Hopefully we will be able to spend at least a week between Cape Le Grand and Cape Arid.