The Avon Valley to Esperance

Hello Fam and Friends, I am writing these next few chapters in hindsight as we have already arrived back to Mansfield early November.  I regret that I haven't written in 'real time', one reason is for accuracy and secondly, you may have wondered if we had not been totally lost somewhere in WA.

I realised somewhere around late August that our trip stopped being a holiday adventure, but rather the way we now live, and this has become our response to those that ask if we are enjoying our holiday, to which we reply, it's a lifestyle we have chosen.  Very liberating really, with a holiday, eventually you come back to what you left behind.

Leaving Buntine Rocks, we travelled south to Toodyjay (Toojay) and left the mid-west wheat belt, scrub and wildflowers behind us.  This was replaced by wooded native forest, rolling hills and pretty, historical towns that were in fact only 85kms east of Perth.  These villages are frequented by city day trippers to enjoy the countryside, markets and historical buildings.  We chose a caravan park a little out of town which proved very peaceful and had the smell of the eucalypts.  

Toodyjay sits on the Avon River, settled by Europeans in the 1830's.  In the 1860's it became a Convict Hiring Depot (similar to Port Gregory).  There are many beautiful buildings, and the town walk is very pretty with some lovely old pubs to visit.

Avon River

Main Street

Old Flour Mill

Beautiful old pub

Travelling only 70kms south through Northam, we stopped at York for the next few days (August 22nd).  Noted as being the oldest inland town in WA, situated on the Avon River, it was first settled as a sheep and grain region.  There was also a flourishing sandalwood trade, something we have heard about across WA and previously knew nothing of.  York boomed during the gold rush as the last rail stop before the walk to the goldfields - it's a long walk to Kalgoorlie - 500kms!

I had picked a stay here for Noel - there is a fabulous Motor Museum here located in the main street.  The collection is privately owned by Peter Briggs, who has rather a colourful history on and off the racetrack.  This area is quite near where the amazing Peter Brock suffered his fatal car crash back in 2006.

York Town Hall

York Swing Bridge

Greenhill Inn

Greenhill St Andrews Church

Greenhill Bakery

We took a lovely day trip out to Greenhills to visit an historic Inn and found the region had plenty of history to offer.  The Greenhills Inn was built in 1906 by the first female publican in WA.  The church, originally built of stone in 1882, was rebuilt as this timber structure in 1912 after the Health Board deemed the old stone building 'unsuitable'.

Life for us has settled into a nice rhythm with the usual domestic chores to attend to, some reading and walking through townships and points of interest.  There is really no pressure to be some where or do some thing; we are only limited by weather conditions some days.

We put in a big travel day to free camp at the Katanning RV overnight stop on route to Albany.  The weather has been miserable - cold, rain and wind, so we knew we were in for it when we arrived at Cosy Corner, just 30kms east of Albany.

EV charging station in front of the pub

I had booked into a motel in Albany, which was good forward thinking given the weather and we had been cooped up in the van for a few weeks.  We visited the Whaling Station Discovery Centre at Frenchmans Bay.  As often is the case, we thought we would be there for a few hours, but spent the entire day viewing all the exhibits and stories.  Such a fantastic amount of information and history of the Albany whaling period.  It should be recognised that it was whaling that settled Western Australia long before gold, sandalwood and iron ore.

Whaling Museum

On Saturday 28th we drove through the countryside to Castle Rock Granite Skywalk at Porongurup, intending to do quite a big walk, but I was very tired from the previous day at the whaling museum, so we only walked a short distance and turned back.  Instead, we found a cottage serving tea and scones - happy days.  Have put the Skywalk back on the bucket list along with Bluff Knoll.

I can't say Albany did much for me, but in her defence, we experienced shocking weather, which meant my one goal was to find good coffee, which I'm pleased to say was successful in the form of a gorgeous French bistro down at the Harbour precinct.  We need to give her another chance!

Coffee and croissant

We headed for Bremer Bay, a little under 200kms north east.  Many people on our travels had told us about BB and we were looking forward to our visit.  The caravan park was virtually empty, but we could see the signs of a tourist influx come the warm weather, which we were not blessed with nor did the rain stop.  Bremer Bay sits on the southern edge of the Fitzgerald River National Park, which is one of the most amazing biospheres we have visited and the natural habitat of species of native flora that are not seen elsewhere.  I was in plant wonderland!  We had a full day of driving, stopping, PHOTOS!, driving, stopping, PHOTOS!  The weather had cleared, although still windy, but we rugged up and braved it.  We drove to Point Ann and were blessed with whales in the bay.  Our first time on this trip to see whales, yeah!

Whale watching

Coastal banksia

Esperance Spider orchid

Common Spider orchid

We had passed another couple throughout the day who clearly had the same interests as us - were stopping as often as us, and we chatted whilst watching the whales.  Janine and Davey became our immediate friends, and kindly invited us to their home for dinner.  They later told us that their friends thought they were crazy - we could have been planning to rob or bash them.....instead we just laughed a lot and drank for too much red wine.  

Back beach at Bremer Bay

The next evening, we went to the local tavern for dinner and met up with fellow travellers from Narre Warren - Mark and Adriana - again we met wonderful friends in unexpected places.  Lots of laughs and discussion about the footy as it was getting to the preliminary final.

Although we were at the wrong time to see them, BB is also known to have orca whales (not nuclear thankfully).  Hopefully we may get to see them in April 2022.

Friday, Sept 3 we headed to Ravensthorpe to meet up with Mark and Adriana again.  We were at the caravan park with the tv set up outside so the four of us could watch the football.  It was freezing, just like being in Melbourne, so we rugged up with our beanies on, cooked some pizzas and had a few beers.  We were all pretty happy with the result and by Sunday it was decided that Melbourne and Doggies were in the Grand Final next weekend.  We were heading the 60kms south to the coast, whilst Mark had too head east to get back to Melbourne fairly quickly.  We were sorry we couldn’t travel more together, but I’m sure there will be another time to catch up.

We drove out of Hopetown to free camp in the National Park at Four Mile Campground.  This area is at the eastern end of the Fitzgerald River NP with a terrific road along the coast leading to many wonderful beaches and coves.  This NP is one of the largest and most most significant  NP in Australia.  It contains almost 20% of all WA species, 62% of which are found nowhere else    Definitely worth exploring further if you’re heading this way.  The NP’s throughout WA are incredibly well laid out, excellent facilities - long drop toilets and showers are spotless, provision for waste at some, although it is recommended that you take your waste with you - no problem by us.

 

Beach boy

Next day, we drove back into Hopetoun to fill our tanks with water.  Such a pretty little seaside town, it would be wonderful in the warmer months.

Hoptetoun

Quagi Beach

Campfire

Campfire 2

Our next stop was Quagi Beach, another free camping spot.  Again, NP area so well laid out with great amenities.  We were one of two campers there, so virtually had the place to ourselves.  Two minute walk to the beach, just needed warmer weather.  Don’t think I have had my togs out since Exmouth!

We arrived at Esperance on September 7 as planned and stayed at the Bathers Paradise CP which was a bit expensive, but offset by the previous week of free camping.  A small park, but very well kept.  What I may not have mentioned is that probably 60% of caravaners travel with a dog(s).  Now, I raise this as the people next to us in the CP had a dog, in fact a barking dog!  As mentioned in a much earlier chapter regarding caravan/camping etiquette, dogs should not, must not bark, nor are they to be unattended for any period of time.  Anyway, you can see where this is going, but it’s up to management to deal with it and they apologised profusely and told the people (and their dog) that they would not be welcome again at the Park.

Esperance Horbour

Esperance foreshore

Jetty

Esperance - we love you (15,000 pop.).  The town had a great feel to it, all facilities/shops without being too busy and obviously relied heavily on tourism.  Sept 8^th was my birthday, so I treated myself to a haircut and pedicure, Noel found hardware shops; Win, win.  We had a lovely dinner at the restaurant on the Jetty, which we enjoyed very much not having had dinner out since Busselton.  The locals told me that the majority of visitors came from Kalgoorlie for their summer getaway - it’s a long way from anywhere though - 8 hours to Perth and only 4 hours to Kal.

Pristine beaches - white sand, turquoise water, throw in a few rugged cliffs and scrubby dunes and a bright blue sky.  The town foreshore and jetty area have been developed to provide lovely walking paths, pop-up coffee, dry docks, and views of large shipping movements (salt exports).  There are many shipwreck stories going back to 1599 and make for fascinating reading.  From someone who suffers incredible seasickness, I felt every wave hitting the hull.

The town has a notable list of early explorers, first visited by the Frenchman d’Entrecasteaux in 1792, and the town later named after a French ship L’Esperance (hope).  Matthew Flinders followed in 1802 then Eyre in 1841.  In the 1890’s the settlement was a major take off point for the goldrush to the north.  This was all testing my memory of Australian History at secondary school and the trip has highlighted how biased my education in this area was toward the ‘glory’ of the British Empire.

We look forward to returning to this area next year as there is much more to see and do.  Leaving Esperance, we travelled a short distance to Cape Le Grand NP and Lucky Bay.  A beautiful NP to the east of Esperance and the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, which is quite a statement.  When staying at NP’s the trick is to arrive pretty early, around 10am to get the pick of the camp sites.  I don’t think it would have mattered at Lucky Bay where you camped up, everywhere was beautiful, and amazing facilities for just a few dollars a night although you need to be self-sufficient with power and water.  The surrounding NP offered wonderful day trips, wildflowers and more beautiful beaches AND at last, warmer weather. 

Lucky Bay

Dianella (I think)

Orchids

I think it was at this point that Noel really started to enjoy the beach environment.  He had never been very keen on the beach, but as he said, he had been to the mountains and the desert, but not often to the beach, so had not really understood it’s appeal.  For me, the beach all my life meant ‘holidays’ - warm sun, swimming, surfing, sunsets and the cool sea breeze of the evenings.  It takes me back to happy childhood times.

We left the coast and headed north to Norseman and realised that we were now ‘heading back’.  I just wanted to keep going, didn’t really matter where, we were making those sort of decisions when we woke up, but now we had a date on the horizon.

It was a big driving day to reach Norseman, travelling through the beautiful salmon gum woodlands, but we had an important date to celebrate.  We were meeting up with Jo and David Payne (Mansfield folk) and it was Jo’s birthday.  We free camped at appropriately named Mount Thirsty Rest Area, a wooded area just north of Norseman.  The campfire was going, and it was wonderful to share a few glasses of bubble and talk about our lives on the road, which we both loved.

Woodland near Norseman

The next day we were eastbound, across the Nullarbor again, as we wanted to get to Ceduna in nine days to watch the Grand Final