Our April holidays took us on a fantastic road trip around the southern coastline of Western Australia. We had a wonderful blend of hiking, beaches, wineries and friends to make it a great trip. Our flights were on time, the roads were quiet for driving and the weather was generally on our side.
After landing in Busselton and exiting the ‘airport’ which was just a glorified warehouse, we drove north to Perth to see my friend Tifanny. We happened to get a mid 30’s day with blue skies and plenty of sunshine. Besides almost getting impaled from someones rogue beach umbrella, we had a great time catching up and meeting the family.
From Perth we had the long day of driving diagonally to Wave Rock and then onto Esperance. A total of 8 hours on the road. Wave rock was a quick detour perfectly positioned halfway at 4 hours inland. The rock formation itself was stunning but golly were the flies terrible! We battled the flies for a quick walk around and then back to the safety of the car. We then spent the next 4 hours trying to shoo the stowaways out the window.
Esperance is a small port town on the ocean. I would say you probably go to Esperance as a gateway to visit the neighbouring national parks. The next few days were spent exploring Cape Le Grande National Park (45 min East of Esperance). This national park is home to some of the most pristine beaches in Australia. We were not disappointed by what we experienced! The sand was like flour, the water every shade of turquoise and seemingly untouched by humans. We enjoyed some hikes and beach time, a very strong start to the trip.
Cape Le Grande was our most Easterly point and we worked our way back West from there. We drove from Esperance to Fitzgerald National Park and did a great hike out there. Somehow, Fitzgerald National Park seemed even more remote than Cape Le Grande! After our hike we spent the night in Bremer Bay, perhaps the tiniest of places. Equipped with a general store, 2 gas stations, a post office and brewery. What we didn’t really know was that Bremer Bay is the best place for orca tours in Australia, and caters to marine biologists/researchers. If we ever find ourselves down there again, we might brave the open ocean and go on a tour.
We left Bremer Bay and continued on to Albany. This was were the lovely weather we were having decided to take a break. This put a damper on our planned beach days so we pivoted! We explored the neighbouring town of Denmark and a few local wineries instead.
We left Albany and chased the sun as we made our way up to Margaret River. Here we were greeted with much more pleasant weather so we could get back onto our itinerary. We were lucky enough to catch some of the WSL Margaret River Surf Pro, visited a bunch of wineries, plenty of beaches, sunsets and even saw the stingrays in Hamelin Bay.
We had a really wonderful time exploring WA and even came home with a tan! It was a quick transition getting back to Melbourne Sunday evening as I had school camp Wednesday-Friday. Overall, school camp went well with no major dramas or issues. I personally prefer to camp in the summer, I don’t enjoy being cold at night. Our overnight lows were 5 degrees and rainy which sucked. But the hike went well, I got to do some rafting and I even challenged the high ropes course with the kids. Needless to say I slept very well in my own bed Friday night.
One thing that surprised me was that making s’mores at camp isn’t a typical Australian activity. The kids didn’t really know what I was talking about so I had the opportunity to share what is a very North American camping tradition with a bunch of 16 year olds! A really fun way to finish off camp.
Term 2 is now in full swing, the autumn chill is settling in and the leaves are falling and changing colour. We hope springtime is bringing you new life with longer days and warmer weather ahead. Hope to see you in the land down under one of these days.
With love,
Alex & Michael
