Le Grand National Park, Esperance, WA

After the desert, the long driving, the cold winds, the roadhouses and their crummy bathroom facilities, we arrived in Esperance. Said to be the most beautiful chunk of coastline in WA, if not the country... and typically when something like this is talked up, it ain't that special when you get there.
Le Grand National Park exceeded all expectations... Le Grand beach may be the most spectacular beach i have had the opportunity to set foot upon... or more precisely, lay down upon. and i have seen a number of beaches in the past few months...... the white, soft sand... the crystal clear blue water.... the islands that surround it.... the lack of people... all come together here for the greatest of beachside experiences...
and, and it was a 38 degree cloudless day and we had the whole day to frolic and relax and play and do absolutely nothin'.... wish i was there right now...

oh and at said glorious campsite, you are often awoken by .... wild horses... brumbys, they are called, as the ranger told me.... how f***ing awesome is that ?! sigh... first night there they paid us a visit.

And just over that sand dune, our tent was set up... Esperance's Le Grand Beach campsite is the most glamourous of National Parks... A beautiful place to start in WA...

yeah, i just rolled outta bed and went for a morning swim.... Le Grand Beach... i could live here.

nope... Alexi is not swimming in a pool, it's the glorious ocean water at the glorious beach...

Dinner at the campsite.... again, great campsite....

after a hard day at the beach... i enjoyed the sunset...from the beach...

obviously i was quite excited to have arrived at the WA border. no comments please.

far from home.... and every where else apparently.

ummm, yeah. gas was very very very very very expensive along the Nullarbor... and you don't have a choice but to buy it at the few roadhouses along the way....

another lookout.

During the crossing of the Nullarbor, there were perhaps 20 or more vehicles that we were able to spot that had been left abandoned on the side of the road... you can dream up a whole bunch of different scenarios that would lead one to leave their car all alone.. but the more i thought about it, the more i hoped and prayed that our luxury sedan didn't break down.

thousands if not millions of kangaroos are murdered each and every year along the Nullarbor. poor guys.

living on the edge...

so this is the edge of the continent... quite stunning...

end of the day....

so, it was soooo cold the night before sleeping in the tent.... and having driven for about 10 hours that day.... and after having struggled long a hard in an attempt to put tent pegs into hard desert dirt to no avail... like true wimps.. we got a budget motel room in the middle of nowhere... but it was better than dealing with a bitter cold desert night of howling wind... got a wonderful sleep and had two hot showers... splendid and expensive it was.

the driver.

The Nullarbor Plain.

a dingo leaving the scene. you think it's a stray dog... but it may eat your baby.

Headed to Fowler's Bay

A short drive from the Eyre Highway towards the coast is this place.. never seen anything like it. there is absolutley nothing and no one around. Just flat nothing, whiteish road, little bushes, dried up salt lakes and large sand dunes... it was very much a contrast from the reddish earth and orange dirt roads inland... like being on another planet...

it was soooo hot inland... thought of going for a swim... 25kms later along the coast, stormy clouds covered the beach and the breeze was cold... but the beach was beautiful....

just at the end of this pier is the entire town of Fowler's Bay...

flat for miles and miles all around.

the saltwater lakes we encountered were drying up.... looked like shattered glass in some places.

heading back inland to contend with undomesticated creatures.

wild camel encountered in australian middle of nowhere town... now he looks docile. however, as soon as you rip out the camera like a proper tourist to snap a shot of something you don't see every day, the beast goes mad! well. he started out sorta curious and without an ounce of hesitation he approached the car as it was stopped... then he picked up the pace... snared, grunted and made unspeakable sounds with his lips... and when he got to my passenger window, Alexi (with psychic-like foresight) begins to drive away as the camel lunges toward me.... now i've still got camera in hand and see the beast through the lens and find it all a very special photographic opportunity, however, Hobbs may have saved me from some sort of camel rabies and for this I thank him... and as the car pulls away, in protest, the wild camel with a crazed look in his eye gallops frantically after the car, snaring and drooling... the guy who was tending to the roadhouse we stopped at for the night said "it happens all the time."

a whole lotta big-ass bugs along the Nullarbor...

The Nullarbor

The drive across this famous chunk of Aussie road began in the early morning...

The happy Nullarbor driver.

the desert....

the beginning of a very straight road....

that's right... we made it.... the halfway point.

Only a small glimpse and resemblance of the Nullarbor which lay ahead....

Near Port Augusta... Flinder's Mountain Range.

We've been to Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and now here in South Australia. Yet another glorious national park... except for the funky odour apparent in other areas of the park... salt water lakes dry up during the summer and stink... Safety from the stench was acquired here near the ocean's breeze....