2015/11 Australia trip - Cape le Grand |
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It was a cloudy, cool, and breezy morning with one bright spot: few flies. We were going to be trying again for a campsite at Cape le Grand now that the weekend was over. But we thought we’d take the opportunity to stop a while in Esperance to top up our supplies again.
We drove back west on the blacktop Fisheries road, as this would be our eventual route to the Balladonia track when we headed back across the Nullarbor. Signs said that the track was open, not closed by the recent fire. A big surprise though was a constant stream of gigantic road trains coming out of Esperance; we assumed there must be a mine somewhere around Merivale.
We took a side trip along Esperance’s scenic drive overlooking the Bay of Isles, where we saw this curtain of flowers, and then we stopped to look at Pink Lake. The pinkness comes from algae which thrive in warmth and light. Back in the winter of 2006 it had been only slightly pink, but in this spring of 2015 it wasn’t pink at all; obviously the algae didn’t think much of the weather!
Our plan for topping up supplies was not working too well: the whole shopping centre was closed for Sunday, and the visitors’ centre being used for a Sunday arts market, so we couldn’t get close enough to fill our tanks. We treated ourselves to lunch at the Dome again and mailed our postcards.
We headed west to Cape Le Grand again, past Stonehenge, yes, a full-sized granite replica of Stonehenge. But not the dilapidated version that sits on Salisbury Plain. This one is brand new, 
with all the bits in place, and no wear and tear. Admission costs $10 a head but we cheated and just took this picture from the road. The story is that it was built by a local 
quarry for a millionaire who went bust, so one of the local farmers bought it. It’s for sale now at only $5 million; all profit for the buyer after the first 500000 visitors.
At Cape Le Grand there were a couple of sites available at Le Grand beach so we grabbed the one that was surrounded by high shrubs, out of the wind. We took a short walk on the beach and partway up Le Grand Peak, with its algae-streaked granite. It was still cool and even windier so we had lots of layers on. Those bumps in the picture behind Sandie are granite islands out in the bay, part of the Recherché Archipelago, which stretches over 100 miles east from Esperance. There’s a continuous beach almost to 
Esperance too and we’d see vehicles coming that way from town. Not us!
The peak had a few new flowers and lots of inquisitive kangaroos.
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Cape Le Grand kangaroos 2.33) |
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Monday November 2nd
We had thunderstorms and heavy rain overnight, then steady rain in the morning with occasional downpours. We set off anyway to explore the park, driving over the rutted gravel road to Rossiter Bay. There were trails to a bird sanctuary and up Mississippi Hill, but I soon gave up; it was just too wet.
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Cape Le Grand rain (1.26) |
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The names came from John Eyre (as in Eyre Highway); his party was starving and exhausted after walking across the Nullarbor. They were saved by a chance encounter with Captain Rossiter and his ship the Mississippi.
It was the same weather story at Thistle Bay and Hellfire Bay and Lucky Bay, extraordinarily beautiful scenery barely visible through clouds and rain. Frenchman Peak and all the other mountains were socked in too.
These flowering shrubs were at Rossiter Bay and around Whistling Rock at Thistle Bay. There were lots of plants to see but it was too dark and windy for good pictures. In midafternoon it got brighter but the wind gusts became extreme, delivering an instant soaking.
We returned to the campground, now half empty, and I took advantage of a really soggy evening to try the solar showers. There hadn’t been much sol so the shower was warmish at best but it still felt good after a month without. Sandie didn’t find any warmth on the ladies’ side so she continued without.
I spent the evening backing up this letter and thousands of pictures to some thumb drives, a good idea as it turned out.
Listening to the rain beating down we gave up on the idea of taking the short cut over the Balladonia track to rejoin the Eyre Highway. Tracks can be impassable with that much rain. We’d have to go the long way around: back to Esperance and then along the main road to Norseman where we’d been just under a month ago.
Tuesday November 3rd
After a wet and windy night we had a cloudless sky at dawn. We were getting ready to go out and see as much of the park as we could while the weather was good. As I came out of the bathroom there were four kangaroos clustered just outside the door. They shot off in all directions; one of them bounding down the road until it met a little girl. The girl looked delighted but the kangaroo changed direction in midair and shot through our campsite. I thought I’d find Sandie flattened but she’d got into the camper just in time.
The clouds were already building as we drove to Frenchman’s Peak. The name comes from the “liberty cap” appearance of the pile of rocks on the summit, but the main 
attraction for me was that amazing hole right through the mountain. I had to take a closer look.
There’s no fancy trail; you just walk straight up the granite slope. Sandie stayed with me until the climb got too vertical, then waited while I finished it. That dot at the top of the picture is me. The granite had good traction and there were tour group teenagers walking straight up, but I’m not sure enough of my balance anymore so I had to clamber. Just for giggles my right boot was coming apart and flapping.
I reached one of those summit rocks; up close it was a gigantic boulder, eroded below to form a natural shelter for a dozen people or more. It’s much larger than it looks in the 
picture. Behind the boulder was a climb up into the giant cave that goes right through the mountain, big enough to drive a truck through.
Apparently this entire mountain was once under the sea and the cave was created by ocean forces. The other end of the cave looked out on the park’s coastline and an approaching rainstorm 
which blasted water right through the cave.
After a careful descent, we drove to take a look at Lucky Bay in a few minutes of sunshine and then revisited Thistle Bay to take some pictures of the flowers under better conditions but eventually heavy rain swept in; it was time to leave!
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Lucky Bay (0.27) |
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