The day started windy but yet sunny although last night I had to sleep with my jacket on....brrrrr
We started the day by climbing Cape Le Grand. It was steep and you have to climb on the rock surface, I made it to the top this time, yeah!!! It was harder to climb up for me versus coming down but then again what's new?
We spent our entire day in Esperance today and we were busy beach hopping. 1st up was Lucky Bay, long stretch of white sand used by Tourism Australia for their ads but it is not exactly clean. We then had lunch at the bbq area there and then we went to check the Whistling Rock which wasn't whistling by the way as the wind was not blowing in the 'right' direction. Next we walked to Thistle Bay which has a more pristine and cleaner environment than Lucky Bay.
Following that, we went to another beach which is our guide's favourite - Hellfire's Bay. It was shorter than the previous beaches but it was very windy yet less 'sandy'.
I must add that besides having sandwiches for our lunches recently, we were also having the real deal - 'sand'wiches, gifts from the wind.
After all the beach hopping we headed back to the hostel for those who had to dropped off their wet clothes and then we went off for the Great Ocean Drive - more beaches.
Before we went on the drive, we stop by the Tanker Jetty near the hostel and look for Sammi the sea lion but it was nowhere to be found. So was the ice cream truck that my guide was looking for. So the guide said we will pop by agin later.
The Great Ocean Drive may not be as spectacular as the one in Melbourne but it is definitely less commercialized and crowded and instead of rocks formation you see endless ocean and of cos beaches.
First stop on the drive was a spot where we were told to check out some surfers and man oh man, there were some huge nice houses overlooking the ocean, drool. I was more keen on the houses than the surfers, truth to be told.
2nd stop was Twilight Cove which has nothing to do with the movie and it wasn't spooky just so you know. You can see a few huge rocks in the cove and one looked like a rabbit's head. Look at the photo and let me know if you see it the way I saw it. Next to the cove was a beach called Picnic Beach and again it doesn't seem like a spot for picnics and most importantly you don't see any picnic tables at all, not sure why the names given doesn't gel with the actual place though. The tide was coming in and that leaves very little space for you to even take a stroll on the beach.
We move on to a spot call Observatory Point and this one fits its name better, there were stairs going down for you to check out the beach below and there were stairs going up to a lookout point and it was bloody windy. The majestic ocean views were great from the lookout.
Back to the winds, they were very strong throughout, we can feel our bus rocking when it is stationary and most of the time if you are walking, you can either be push forward or backward depending on the wind's direction.
Moving on, we arrived at a beach call 10 Mile Beach which was named because it was exactly 10 miles from town and not because it was 10 miles long. AND it is a nudist beach but there were no sunbathers there of cos due to the winter like weather.
Nearer to this part of the drive, you can see many wind turbines on the hilltop, very smart since it is always windy one should take advantage of it. Apparently 70% of Esperance gets their energy from wind and the remaining from gas. Amazing! I am very impressed because I know I will never get to see these back home. Anyway, the good news was our guide decided to bring us to the wind farm and you know what? You can actually stand under the wind turbines, our guide wanted to let us hear how loud it was but all we heard was the howling of the wind. Then, it started drizzling and we started to hide behind the turbine. It was the first shower after a long day of sun and while standing under the turbine we looked up and saw the turbine moving. Of course it was not, it was the moving clouds that caused the impression. My guide felt it was freaky and decided to run back to the bus hehe.
Right after the mini shower, a wonderous rainbow appeared in front of us, beautiful!
Last stop on our drive was a place called Pink Lake and as you probably already guessed, it is not pink! Why's that so? Because it is filled with too much water during this season so it look like a normal lake but apparently during the drier seasons when the water evaporates, it looked pink when light get reflected on it. This is due to the rich beta carotene minerals that are at the bottom of the lake.
Having seen the Pink Lake that's not pink, it marked the end of our drive. We headed back to town and I hitched a ride from our guide to town to grab some snacks from the supermarket while he pumped petrol.
We had stirfried chicken with vegetables and rice. Yum, though it was too salty for my liking but nonetheless it was good to have a change after days of pasta and processed meats. The dinner somehow took 2 hours to prepared so even though we wanted to have an early night it was quite impossible since we ate only at 830pm.
I was out by 1030pm as we had to wake up at 530am the next day as we had to get ready for the long drive back to Perth.
We started the day by climbing Cape Le Grand. It was steep and you have to climb on the rock surface, I made it to the top this time, yeah!!! It was harder to climb up for me versus coming down but then again what's new?
We spent our entire day in Esperance today and we were busy beach hopping. 1st up was Lucky Bay, long stretch of white sand used by Tourism Australia for their ads but it is not exactly clean. We then had lunch at the bbq area there and then we went to check the Whistling Rock which wasn't whistling by the way as the wind was not blowing in the 'right' direction. Next we walked to Thistle Bay which has a more pristine and cleaner environment than Lucky Bay.
Following that, we went to another beach which is our guide's favourite - Hellfire's Bay. It was shorter than the previous beaches but it was very windy yet less 'sandy'.
I must add that besides having sandwiches for our lunches recently, we were also having the real deal - 'sand'wiches, gifts from the wind.
After all the beach hopping we headed back to the hostel for those who had to dropped off their wet clothes and then we went off for the Great Ocean Drive - more beaches.
Before we went on the drive, we stop by the Tanker Jetty near the hostel and look for Sammi the sea lion but it was nowhere to be found. So was the ice cream truck that my guide was looking for. So the guide said we will pop by agin later.
The Great Ocean Drive may not be as spectacular as the one in Melbourne but it is definitely less commercialized and crowded and instead of rocks formation you see endless ocean and of cos beaches.
First stop on the drive was a spot where we were told to check out some surfers and man oh man, there were some huge nice houses overlooking the ocean, drool. I was more keen on the houses than the surfers, truth to be told.
2nd stop was Twilight Cove which has nothing to do with the movie and it wasn't spooky just so you know. You can see a few huge rocks in the cove and one looked like a rabbit's head. Look at the photo and let me know if you see it the way I saw it. Next to the cove was a beach called Picnic Beach and again it doesn't seem like a spot for picnics and most importantly you don't see any picnic tables at all, not sure why the names given doesn't gel with the actual place though. The tide was coming in and that leaves very little space for you to even take a stroll on the beach.
We move on to a spot call Observatory Point and this one fits its name better, there were stairs going down for you to check out the beach below and there were stairs going up to a lookout point and it was bloody windy. The majestic ocean views were great from the lookout.
Back to the winds, they were very strong throughout, we can feel our bus rocking when it is stationary and most of the time if you are walking, you can either be push forward or backward depending on the wind's direction.
Moving on, we arrived at a beach call 10 Mile Beach which was named because it was exactly 10 miles from town and not because it was 10 miles long. AND it is a nudist beach but there were no sunbathers there of cos due to the winter like weather.
Nearer to this part of the drive, you can see many wind turbines on the hilltop, very smart since it is always windy one should take advantage of it. Apparently 70% of Esperance gets their energy from wind and the remaining from gas. Amazing! I am very impressed because I know I will never get to see these back home. Anyway, the good news was our guide decided to bring us to the wind farm and you know what? You can actually stand under the wind turbines, our guide wanted to let us hear how loud it was but all we heard was the howling of the wind. Then, it started drizzling and we started to hide behind the turbine. It was the first shower after a long day of sun and while standing under the turbine we looked up and saw the turbine moving. Of course it was not, it was the moving clouds that caused the impression. My guide felt it was freaky and decided to run back to the bus hehe.
Right after the mini shower, a wonderous rainbow appeared in front of us, beautiful!
Last stop on our drive was a place called Pink Lake and as you probably already guessed, it is not pink! Why's that so? Because it is filled with too much water during this season so it look like a normal lake but apparently during the drier seasons when the water evaporates, it looked pink when light get reflected on it. This is due to the rich beta carotene minerals that are at the bottom of the lake.
Having seen the Pink Lake that's not pink, it marked the end of our drive. We headed back to town and I hitched a ride from our guide to town to grab some snacks from the supermarket while he pumped petrol.
We had stirfried chicken with vegetables and rice. Yum, though it was too salty for my liking but nonetheless it was good to have a change after days of pasta and processed meats. The dinner somehow took 2 hours to prepared so even though we wanted to have an early night it was quite impossible since we ate only at 830pm.
I was out by 1030pm as we had to wake up at 530am the next day as we had to get ready for the long drive back to Perth.
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