After a less than scintillating game of golf on the beautiful Esperance Golf Course we packed up on Sunday and headed off . The golf course runs around a lot of lakes - mostly salt lakes , but the one in the photo has hundreds of black swans on it .
Okay , this is the start of a magical 5 days camping at Lucky Bay in Cape Le grande NP . You now have to book to stay here , and it can be quite busy and hard to get into - we booked 4 days ahead and got 4 nights straight up , we also extended a night as well - someone had cancelled 2 days - we got to book it on the late afternoon on our last day - you can be lucky !!
So this is our spot up in the newer section - an 11m x 6m site all to ourselves - they are spaced nicely so you're not camped on top of each other . Facilities are excellent , the camp kitchen is just to the right of our van in the photo - sinks , bbq's and a gas stove . The toilet block is the best drop toilet we've ever seen - tiled floors , mini orb corrugated sheeting , stainless steel framing , disabled facilities , showers - quite stunning - it matches the scenery !!
There are granite mountains/ peaks everywhere , some of which run straight down into the ocean , others are land bound or are islands in the Recherche Archipelago. Access is easy with a little bit of climbing here & there . This is the view of Lucky Bay Beach .
The rocks are very similar to the Remarkable Rocks on Kangaroo Island SA - weather beaten and eroded into wonderful shapes , some are smaller like this next one , others you can walk through . The rock in the right of the next photo was where the previous photo was taken .
As you can see , the weather wasn't at it's sparkling best , but good enough to see how white the sand is here , in amongst the washed up seagrass .
The locals are a friendly bunch , coming round in the mornings and afternoons - looking for something to nibble on - they leave hungry from our site . I think they put this ones head on backwards though Hahaha .
Small nectar feeding birds are regulars here , darting from bush to bush at great speed . This is the New Holland Honey Eater .
That ended day 1 , this next photo is Frenchman Peak and rises up to 262m asl , it has a cave near the peak that you can see through - apparently caused by the ocean - ( all this area was once underwater ) and wind erosion . You can climb it - the track is on the right hand side as it is a more gentle slope .
And that was our trek for today , to climb Frenchman Peak - in the brochures it says a Grade 4 walk which is getting up there in difficulty . We get to the carpark and the sign there says Grade 5 , but looking at it we decide to go for it anyway . We were there at 8am , only a backpacker having breakfast was the only other person - I'm thinking he may have been there all night though !
The walk from the carpark is an easy track through the coastal vegetation , there are still flowers about , here's a few of them .
The track turned into a boardwalk - in need of some TLC - then led to the first stage of the climb up the granite peak . The rock is very grippy , so we didn't have to worry about slipping on loose rocks , it varied from a reasonable slope to steep in a couple of places , but nothing that was too much of a concern for us . After climbing for a while we reached the lower cave on the western side and stopped to take in the view .
I don't know how , but we ended up with this drone shot of the lower cave and the smaller one that goes right through the peak - we are standing just below it .
This is inside the cave that goes right through - it was huge - about 80m across the front and about 40m across at the back - spectacular !
This is looking out to Hellfire Bay and the Southern Ocean .
Found a couple of lizards cruising around the rocks - about 30cm long .
Views are toward Esperance , the beach is Le Grand Beach - you can drive quite a long way back toward Esperance on it apparently - we didn't try that out however .
Some of the bushes have been growing up here for an eternity looking at the size of the trunks .
We climbed the next 20 m to the peak and sat taking in the views for a while till the first few other climbers started to arrive . After a while we started back down again , getting passed by fit young 20 somethings - some nearly appeared to be running down in comparison to us haha .
Going back down was easier than we thought and we made it back down without any bumps or grazes , all in one piece .
We headed back toward the van for lunch , but turned into Thistle Cove and Whistling Rock . The wind wasn't the right direction for the rock to whistle though . We checked out the swirling waves on the rocks before heading back for lunch .
After lunch the weather had improved with some sun coming out , so we headed back around to Thistle Cove - a 5min drive away .
Making our way down to the beach , we came off the granite rock onto the sand . There is a small stream of water flowing out of a little lake behind the dunes .
Funny , these drone shots keep finding their way into my posts , The views from above the rocks were stunning .
And from about 120m above the water as well .
The lake is visible behind the dunes in this photo - whistling rock is one of the larger rocks on the right hand side of the beach , it does whistle when you are standing in the right spot - you can move a metre one way or the other and it stops - quite amazing .
Some more of the small granite rocks here .
This totem pole stands near the whistling rock , a lot of dedication by the sculptor - wind & rain does amazing things to granite rocks hahaha .
That's its for the first 2 days - needless to say we've slept pretty well . Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LxtbwysIxIzlY-WFD5IAIANYp2enSERe&usp=sharing
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