Easy Day in Bremer Bay

Today we are having a layday as I need a break from looking at beautiful beaches. Need to catch up on some computer/ banking stuff   Went to the Bremer Bay resort for lunch. Accidentally had the local wine at $9 a glass. Ouch. Food was great though   Then we checked out Wellstead museum. This is an impressive collection of old farm stuff and cars and tractors and general living things collected by the Wellstead family, a pioneering family from the mid 1800s. 

 

 

We couldn't help ourselves. We had to have afternoon tea afterwards. 

Fitzgerald National Park Day

Had a late start to the day as it was the weekend and we were staying for a while here. We went to check out the town and it mostly consisted of a shop. Bought a few things and came back and had breakfast. We must be getting too relaxed as it was midday before we set off to the Fitzgerald National Park. The bush is very different here in WA. It is neat and it looks like it has been planted. There seems to be few weeds. Even at this time of year there are flowers. It would be amazing later in the Year.   

 

 

We drove to Point Anne which has wonderful views.   

   

No migrating whales this time of year unfortunately but very pretty all the same.    We checked out the inlet   

And then we did a bit of 4WDriving part way down to Trigelow Beach. Interesting way they have put down these rubber sheets for people wanting to 4WD to the beach itself.   

 

 

    Once we got back we had tea and watched some catch up TV. 

Sue and Colin's Place

It was fun staying with our new friends. They were very interesting and creative people and We enjoyed being shown around the property and seeing all the unusual things they had collected and their beautiful gardens. 

 

 

 

Sue took us on a bit of a tour around the area and pointed out some of the flora.   

 

Mt Barren very much dominates the area. It was named that because from the sea when discovered it was thought it was barren. Since then hey have found hundreds of rare plants grow there.    She also took us to see some of the devastation from the flood earlier this year.   

The road from Hopetun to the Fitzgerald National Park was completely demolished and swept away. It is devastating for the town still reeling from the withdrawal of BHP. It is unknown whether the road will ever be rebuilt and this will really impact on the tourist industry in the area. Sue and Colin are very connected to their local community and it seems like such a supportive place as everyone rallies around those who have been affected by the floods. It is months since it happened and there is still water covering complete properties. Valuable topsoil has been completely removed and many will be ruined.   

                                                                             Where the road used to run.    We met Colin back at their property for morning tea. A neighbour had made a yummy date cake for us. Colin gave Geoff a belated birthday present - several old toy Landrovers.  It was such a thoughtful gift and will be added to his little collection. After morning tea we said goodbye and got back on the road. We had to take a hour and half detour to get where we were going as the road was still closed from the flooding.    We arrived at Bremer Bay a few hours later and found a very nice easy Caravan Park to stay for a few days. 

Happy Birthday Geoff

Because it was Geoff's birthday today and the caravan park management seemed to have a rather relaxed attitude to running the park we decided to have a late check out, catching up with washing, 2 days worth of washing up, running repairs to the electrics in the van and the cooking of a chocolate cake for Geoff.   

 

  We finally took off after morning tea and had a bit of a look around the town of Ravensthorpe which has a history of gold mining and pastoral leases. There are now some nickel and copper mines.   After this we made our way down to Hopetun where our new Avan friends live as they had asked us to come and stay.  Before we went to their place we spent a few hours in Hopetun and had a lovely walk and swim on 2 mile beach  

 

   

 

Geoff having his birthday swim

 

A special Landrover moment for Geoff on his birthday

Their art at the turnoff to their place

Farm gate to their place  

They have a great house which was a 1880's house which they had bought for $10 and paid $63000 to have it moved to their land. Colin, a builder, then gutted the old house, removed the asbestos and then rebuild it all in the original style. Both Colin and Sue are very creative and serious collectors of so many different things. The community here seems vibrant and connected  they are part of all sorts of things such as the Farm Art collective where property owners are encouraged to make something at their gate  

 

Sunset from their verandah

    We had drinks on the verandah as the sun set and then went out to the pub to have tea to celebrate Geoff's birthday. 

Jobs and travel

We are having some problems with our car fridge so thought we had better see what we could do to improve its performance. So it was a morning of 'boys stuff'. We had morning tea at Esperance and then spent an hour getting petrol as each place we went either only high flow diesel or no diesel at all.  In the afternoon we called in to look at Stokes Inlet, very reminiscent of Myall Lakes. We went for a walk along the foreshore and Geoff had a swim and the. We moved onto Ravensthorpe where stayed the night. It is a lovely setting but very run down facilities. Bulk mosquitoes and midges and lots of bites. 

Lucky Bay 2

Beautiful sunrise this morning from our window  

 

    We relaxed our no bacon rule this morning and had a cooked breakfast. The day unfortunately is cold and showery.    Loved our little guest and it was hard not to feed him. I gave him a tiny piece of toast which he gently took out of my hand

 

  After breakfast we went for a walk over the Hellfire Bay. Beautiful coastal scenery.      

 

After lunch we drove about 6km east to Rossiter Bay. Very windy and cold.   

 

 

John Eyre's cairn to Captain Rossiter.  Eyre, together with his Aboriginal companion Wylie, was the first European to traverse the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land in 1840-1841, on an almost 2000 mile trip to Albany, Western Australia. He had originally led the expedition with John Baxter and three aborigines. On 29 April 1841 two of the aborigines killed Baxter and left with most of the supplies, and Eyre and Wylie were only able to survive because they chanced to encounter, at a bay near Esperance, Western Australia, a French whaling ship Mississippi, under the command of an Englishman, Captain Thomas Rossiter, for whom Eyre named the location Rossiter Bay.

Finally to Lucky Bay

To Geoff Lucky Bay is the holy grail of where he wanted to go most in Western Australia. He pictured himself on a solitary beach with the weather warm and the sea at the perfect temperature. Well it looks like that is not going to happen but at last today is fairly sunny. Amazing camp ground run by Parks and Wildlife. They have volunteer camp host who stay there a month at a time to make sure things run smoothly. Great campsites that aren't on top of each other. There are flush toilets and a couple of hot showers and a camp kitchen.   

  Amazing views from our van.    We set up and had lunch and the went for a long walk along the beach.  

 

Lots of kangaroos everywhere. Very friendly and loved to be stroked.    There are caves in the headland from when most of the rocks were under water and the currents sculpted out these holes    

 Very tempted to go for a swim but just a little too cold   In the late afternoon we went driving and checked out the other beaches  

Thistle Cove

    Thistle cove, the next beach around from us had the most amazing rock formations.   

Whispering rock

  This huge standing one looked like it had been painted and it made the weirdest whistling, moaning sound.   

  Hellfire Bay was more remote and quite wild. Excellent daystay facilities. The Parks over here really do a good job in making the facilities useful and attractive.     

Hell fire Bay

 

The final one for the day was Le Grand Beach. The whole National Park is named after a sailor called Le Grande who in the early 1800's during a massive storm climbed up the mast to guide the ship into Lucky Bay.  There is another camping ground at Le Grand Beach. It is right on the beach although it doesn't have the views of Lucky Bay. Much smaller number of sites.  Beginnings of sunset over Le Grand Beach  

Sunset Le Grand Beach

   

 

Frenchman's Peak

Coming back we passed Frenchman's Peak. There was a hole worn in the top of it aparently from water currents in some bygone era! Late getting tea done due to our late excursion. Watched half a movie until the DVD player ran out of power