Lucky Bay
For a moment I thought our first stop in Esperance would be the hospital. Claire woke that morning all out of sorts and didn’t want to get out of bed. We let her sleep while we had breaky and packed up but when she woke again she continued to doze off in my arms. No temperature, no puncture wounds, responding well but rag-doll sleepy. We dosed her with paracetamol and Matthias cajoled her into eating something. She dozed again on the drive into Esperance but woke with a bit more animation. So instead of the hospital, we pulled into Woolies. And within an hour she was her jumping babbling self again. Perhaps she just needed to reset.
Esperance was a prep day. We needed to stock up for what was to be 9 days in the wilderness. So we didn't see a great deal of the town but it had a wholesome agricultural beach town feel about it. Maybe a cross between Kingston SE and Beach Port. Though I'm basing this entirely on my visit to the Woolworths and the visitor centre.
Our first stop in Cape le Grand NP was Lucky Bay. This was perhaps the first of our Big Lap essential hit-list sites. All the Big Lap Insta-families that I follow on social media have drone shots of aquamarine water kissing alabaster white sand and cute kids on the beach with kangaroos photos from Lucky Bay. And yes, you can totally see why it's a must stop spot. See our attempts at the aforementioned photos. No kangas on the beach unfortunately but the kids are still cute.
This is one of the sites you need to book in advance, and we were lucky to get two consecutive nights a week out. It was also the most structured camping we’d done so far with designated camp sites, a camp kitchen, drop toilets cleaner than our flushing loo at home, solar hot showers and a camp host that we register with on arrival. With 50+ booked sites all on one small hillside we weren’t sure this would be our kind of camping, but we were pleasantly surprised. All fellow campers were quiet and respectful and with plenty of beauty spots along the coast, we were by no means all crammed onto the one beach.
It was here we reached our three week mark, around the time-frame a lot of people say it takes to settle in to life on the road. And for us it did feel like a moment of exhalation, like we'd finally arrived.
To welcome us, we were greeted by a big male kangaroo within 5 minutes of arriving at our campsite. He was not at all phased by us, to the point that we almost felt compelled to move out of his way.
Despite the weather turning cool and windy we had a great afternoon on the beach, playing with with the strange squeaky sand that wets like cornflour and flirting with the crystal water. Fresh water seeps from the land into the sand, which makes Lucky Bay famous for the kangaroos that come down to drink. But possibly there was plenty of water elsewhere when we were there as despite our best efforts we saw no kangas on the beach. But a family of three roos joined us on our last night, bounding into our camp while we ate dinner, much to the kid's delight.
We walked the 2+ km into Thistle Cove, Hugh managing the full distance all under his own steam and without whinging. Claire wasn't so stoic and had to return with Matthias at the 3/4 mark, catching a nap on the way back.
I had a lovely time with Hugh enjoying the last part of our walk, taking in Whistling Rock and the granite ledges. Claire and Matthias returned with the car to join us for a picnic lunch and play on the near isolated beach of Thistle Cove.
