We take a loop out west of Esperance, via Pink Lake, only this one isn’t pink any more (the 2018 brochure still shows it as pink, but the sign says it hasn’t been pink in years, Mmmmm)
Nope, not pink
Round to the coast and the water here is beautiful. There’s these rocks just off the beach so the water is calm, and there are the great natural pools. It’s still early and the car parks are starting to fill up.
Justine has heard about Twilight beach, and about how it is protected from wind and swell, It’s at this time the kids start to go feral, refuse to do anything and a general sense of humour bypass is had by all. We take a look, but elect to head on.
On the way back through town we see the miniature railway we missed yesterday. Why not! The kids love it.
Back to the van for a quick bite. The Canberra family we met in Albany have just pulled into the showgrounds so we’ll catch up with them later in the day.
My other van!
In the afternoon we head east to Cape Le Grande National Park. We had heard about the camp ground out there ages ago, but we found out this would be booked out ages in advanced at this time of year.
It’s about 65km each way. We brought a monthly pass to WA national parks back in at Karagini, and it expires tomorrow, so it is the last use today. All the signs say that all the campgrounds a booked out.
We arrive at Lucky Bay, wow what a spot. I can see why people would book this a year out.
The kids don’t want to put swimmers on, they don’t really want to “do” anything. We force them out and down to the beach. As we walk down, we see two kangaroos on the beach, they must get fed as they are pretty comfortable around the people here. In the Esperance brochure they show this place with roos on the beach, so it stands to reason they were the last thing I was expecting to actually see.
The colour of the water is amazing. Having said that, it’s a warm day, but the water is still pretty cool. There are dozens of cars on the beach, I didn’t realise access was so easy and the sand is really hard packed.
Now of course the kids aren’t in swimmers so they now want to play in the water. It seems most of the other tourist here, want the perfect Instagram shot. There are a lot of posing, not a lot of swimming.
We move onto the next two beaches, but the small carparks are all full. We arrive at the last one which is actually at Cape Le Grande. The car park is pretty empty, as we can drive down onto the beach. We drive 500m or so up and find a quiet spot. We force the kids into swimmers this time. What do they do? They find a hole and spend the whole time playing in the sand! Justine and I wade into the water, while cool to start, it’s not too bad.
On the way onto the beach, I see a sign saying you can drive the 22km from here down to Wylie Bay on the beach, given the way the road goes, even though this will be slower, I don’t think it will take too much longer. The sand is so hard at the beginning, I don’t bother lowering the tyre pressures, I figure we’ll do this if we need, about 3km down the road, we really need to!
Most of it was fine, but a few moments I had visions of a 4×4 bogged with the tide coming in. The car did a really good job. I’m impressed with how it handles, especially with just the road tyres it has. It was a great trip, but I would be more relaxed doing it a 2nd time knowing what to expect.
Smooth…. 
…Less So.
Google doesn’t know you can drive on the beach……..
Back to the van and get ready for the fireworks at 9pm.
We walk down with the Canberra group just before 8. There are heaps of people around, but it doesn’t feel crowded. There is a rock band playing some pretty popular covers and by the length of the queues the donuts from the donut van must have been absolutely sensational.
Just before 9 we head over to the waterfront and Esperance put on a fantastic fireworks display, it went for about 15min, but felt even longer. A really good job by all.
Happy New Year! 
We then walk back to the van park and, have a great chat, drink a bit too much wine and stay up till midnight, well all except for Caitlin, her little candle went out at about 11:30.
……Thats not a van……..THATS a van!!!! Holy Moley
Ciao Paulo xx