After our week at Cape Le Grande we had to get back to normal amounts of scenery rather than the overload we'd had . We had read about Stokes Inlet to the west of town - also a National Park - so we headed off . On the way was Quagi Beach , so we had a look in there , but didn't stay long as the beach has been badly eroded and had a lot of sea grass on it . It's about 12 kms from the hwy down some corrugated orange gravel road , a 4wd track goes off into the bush - we thought it was access to the beach - more to that later .
Back onto the hwy onwards to Stokes Inlet , into the park and there's a turnoff to Young River , so we headed into there - supposedly a 4wd track , it could be hard to drive in wet conditions , and there was one sandy stretch as well . The road led us to the river - about 40m across , but hadn't been flowing for a while , tea trees lined the banks . Last time the inlet was open to the sea was 2017 during a large rain event and major flooding .
Again we had some aerial footage of the river & inlet lakes .
Granite rocks also feature here with this 100m section of the river .
On our way out we saw some interesting patterns on the track - a lizard has made them , it's tail creating the main swirling pattern and it's leg dragging claws making the outside curves as it walked along .
Back out and into the inlet , we find a campground and picnic tables , toilets and boat launches . Tea trees line the inlet , a lot of them are in the water . The inlet covers a large area but isn't very deep , only about 3.5m deep in the main channel , the rest is a big shallow area .
After some lunch we wandered off on the walking track to the lookout - after the initial stairs , there's a wide track that leads through the bush to the top of the hill and then continues on further to another carpark - again not inspiring us at all .
There's a Frog Hakea that grows here - these are the seed pods .
There isn't any access to the ocean unless you walk along the side of the inlet - maybe ?? The inlet & park didn't do too much for us - maybe if we were fishing people it may be better , we left a little disheartened by it . The camp ground is in amongst all the tea trees and would be nice and private , people were in here with motorhomes & caravans and tents - obviously fishing people !
A driveway caught my eye on the drive down , so we stopped on the way back - a nice stand of salmon gums lining the driveway .
We got back into Esperance and sat down having a beer and started reading something about Stokes Inlet - apparently there's access to the beach from Quagi Beach by a 4wd track - we'd been there and seen it , but didn't go down it !!! Should do your research before you go !!
After a being out & about we had a bit of a rest day - enforced by the very changeable weather here - today it rained .
Around Esperance is a rather large lake system - all salt lakes and very important with the birdlife it attracts . A lot of migratory birds use the lakes , apart from the hundreds of black swans , there a Cape Barron Geese and many others . The drone got some more work .
The golf course is surrounded by the lakes as well .
The salt has killed many trees and they sit being bleached by the sun and salt .
From here we headed out to Bandy Creek Boat Harbour - used by quite a few large fishing boats and cray boats .
From here we went to Wylie Rock , a bitumen road takes you out there . There is access to the beach here - Le Grand Beach - you can drive from here to Cape Le Grand NP all along the beach - we didn't however , we parked and went for a walk up Wylie Rock instead . People do drive their 4wd's up to the top of the rock , but it requires some deep sand driving to get to it , we enjoyed our walk .
I hope you're not sick of drone shots cause theirs more to come .
This is the beach sweeping back to Esperance .
Another view of Wylie Rock & Le Grand Beach .
We walked up from the beach , over the top and down to the rocks on the other side , then around to the start of the beach track before getting back to the ute and calling it a day .
Next day we had the weather gods smile again , 20 degrees one day 34 the next ??? try to figure that out ?
It was our last day here so we bit the bullet and went for a swim - it has to be warm to go for a swim here - the water temperature isn't very high - somewhere between ice and brass monkeys - around 16 to 18 degrees !! So the best place we thought , would be the lagoon at 11 Mile Beach - apparently it's warmer than the surrounding ocean as there's a reef holding back most of the mainly bloody cold ocean .
We did get in though and Lyn had a little swim around , I just got in and walked around in water up to my waistline , before the pain from the cold water settled in . This is the lagoon and reef on the eastern side .
Looking the other way we had blue skies and jet trails .
And that closes off our time in & around Esperance , tomorrow we're off to Hopetoun , about 180 klms away to the west . Cheers , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=168yej6s9EBugX1x8ZUMUsH8v3_90r_nw&usp=sharing
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