Drove across the Nullarbor and bumped into some Sherwood people, Katie and Kieran Moss! It’s a small world. Some seriously wide loads on this stretch.

Went to a deserted ghost town called Cook which is 100kms of dirt track away from the highway. Why? Because Simon loves trains and this is where the Indian Pacific gets refueled and the only people who live here are a caretaker and train drivers swapping shifts. Simon was in his element.

We saw a dingo close up he came within 10m of the caravan and was quite happy to sit down and just watch us, probably trying to work out if we would make a good feed.

The Bight was amazing colours and very windy didn’t want to get too close to that cliff edge.

Our last stop with Ed and Julie. We were hoping for some sun but the heavens opened and it rained all day. So much so that our tour of the Superpit was cancelled as it was too wet. Very annoying. We did however get to see the Superpit from the look out, armed with our umbrellas.

It has been great travelling together for the last 5 weeks, will miss them.

Stunning beaches all around Esperance.

Visited Cape le Grande National Park. Saw heaps of emus. Lucky Bay was stunning and had very fine sand that squeaked. The flies were out of control in the national park!

The colour of the water looks as if it has been photo shopped but it really is this amazing aqua colour and is so clear. This is a very windy area though and the days fluctuated from having your winter woollies on to beach days. 

There is a 40km ocean drive with a great cycling path that takes in all the beaches and the Pink Lake. The Pink Lake however is NOT pink. It used to be. Commercial salt mining, which only ended in 2007 reduced the salt levels along with increased goundwater inflow due to clearing in the catchment. The pink colour is caused by the algae that can grow in salty water but it has now gone but might be back if the salt content increases.

Disturbed a kangaroo in the act! He wasn’t amused.

Went to visit Wave Rock 110m long and 15m high. I was amazed that when you climb above it there is a reservoir. Visited the Salt Pool where you can float around. You could not touch the bottom or keep your feet down, the buoyancy kept flipping your feet up. If you tried to get into swimming position your bum popped up out of the water. Best position was starfish.

The flies are out of control here nets were a must!

Visited the old whaling museum. There is an old whaling boat which you can get on and explore, it has a gruesome movie playing of the whaling in action. The flensing decks are still there, this is the removal of the blubber and the massive tanks for holding the whale oil have been converted into movie theatres showing different aspects of whaling. They also have very impressive whale skeletons. A very good museum.

Checked out the Anzac memorial centre the views were magnificent.

Finally the sun is out and the winter clothes can go away again. Went to visit Green Pools and Elephant Rock which is  a gorgeous beach with aqua coloured water. Denmark is a lovely town with a great bakery. Lots of vineyards and breweries around the area. Went to the Dam which is a vineyard, cannabis botanical distillery and restaurant. They grow all the cannabis on the farm and make all sorts of hemp products and add it to the gins and gingerbeer (no THC). Julie and I did the gin tasting paddle. Visited the Boston Brewing Company where they made a great raspberry sour beer and a chai latte beer.

Walpole is the wettest town in Western Australia and it was. Lots of wind and rain, winter woollies were out. Did the river cruise and saw a dugite snake.

Went to the Valley of the Giants  to see the famous tingle and karri trees. They have built this amazing tree skywalk through them 40m high. This is to protect the trees as they have very shallow roots which can be easily damaged if walked over. 

Visited a few beaches but far to cold and windy for the beach. Met a tiger snake, two snakes in two days. 

We wanted to try marron which is the WA equivalent to Queensland red claw. You can only catch them for one month a year and there are massive fines if you get them out of season. However there was a marron farm nearby where you can buy all year. They are black in colour and very vicious. We had to put them in the freezer to send them to sleep before preparing for cooking. It was fun watching Ed trying to get them out of the esky into the bag for the freezer.

Visited Jewel Cave which was massive and had amazing formations. Went to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. Apparently on a calm day you can see where they meet but it was very choppy when we visited.

Visited the lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste, there were a lot of whales going past but a bit too far out to be an amazing sight. Obviously we had to visit a few vineyards & breweries. Simon and Julie’s favorite being Vasse Felix vineyard where the wine tasting consisted of 15 wines! Naturally I was the nominated driver. Ed preferred the Brewhouse. Visited Cowamarup, a little town obsessed with cows. They have 42 life size cow statues placed around the town and everything is cow themed. Visited Ngilgi Cave which was great but a bit claustrophobic in parts where you squeeze through very small spaces. Pretty impressive and lots of steps.

Visited the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere at 1.867Kms long. There is a little train that can take you to the end but it was a lovely walk. There is a natural underwater observatory at the end which had all these soft corals growing on the old jetty pylons and lots of fish. There is an underwater sculpture tour for the scuba divers here but we didn’t get to see those. There is a massive brewery on the front called Shelter and it was beer festival day so was hectic