With a few miles between us and Esperance we got on the road fairly early the day of our departure from Bremer Bay. Being still a bit windy and passing through a few small towns we were ready for an early smoko that morning. Seen as it was Remembrance Day and just before 11am we were both ready to spare a thought for our diggers, both past and present, and observe our minute of silence. Now explaining to the girls the meaning and importance of this act was a pretty big job for us. We both had plenty of laughs through our minute and it was more like an hour by the time we finally thought we made a bit of progress with them. Hopefully a bit of it sinks in and they gain a little bit more understanding each year.

Finally arriving in Esperance we were soon set up and battling a pretty cool breeze as we drained a couple of cans. Helping us out was Pete and Sue, a couple we have met before and are also travelling with their kids. The kids had to be dragged out of the cold and Kylz and I spent the night sorting out our next day of sight-seeing.

Having heard plenty about Cape Le'Grand NP and with it being a big area with plenty of beaches and places to see we were up early and on our way. The drive out takes you through farm land and plantation forests before turning into the NP. As you near the first of the beaches the huge Frenchmans Peak comes into view. Opposite that we turned into Hellfire beach and made our way toward what is possibly the cleanest most stunning beach we have seen this year! The crystal clear blue green waters of the southern ocean were relatively calm and rolled gently onto gleaming white sand. Sounds too good to be true eh!? We wandered along the beach writing in the sand and chasing the girls around madly. With a few more stops we opted to leave the swimming for later in the day.

Lucky Bay was our next stop and it sure had a hard act to follow especially as it has been voted the "Whitest beach" in Australia previously. Being a more sheltered beach and with no shore break to contend with it was definitely a winner with the two girls. They were out and togged up heading down to the water dragging their boogie boards in record time! I headed straight in and we had plenty of fun in the water for well over an hour. Not even the bright sun shining down could convince Kylz to join us though! The water was pretty cool but as I have said before it is amazingly refreshing.

Drying off the girls, as they always do after a swim, we were told it was time for lunch and they were definitely "starving" for real this time they reckoned! Having our picnic pack with us we found ourselves a quiet spot out of the wind and enjoyed our lunch. One of our favourite and most used devices this trip has been our little butane stove. Now we know we are not the only ones who are fans of these little units. Every backpacker coming into OZ must get one when they stamp their passport! Bought for about $20 bucks 10 years ago in Mount Isa it is still a top performer. One non stick fry pan and that little ripper, you could feed an army! Used for anything, Kylz has often woken up to find I have used it to boil the jug if I can't be bothered moving the washing up to use the van stove! Our quick smokos are often BLT's or "snags" cooked before you could even get started on the inside stove or light a fire. We have used it heaps this year and have probably only used about 6 cans of gas! First thing I would pack for any trip, long or short.

We spent plenty of time exploring the rest of the beaches and were not disappointed by any of them. Arriving back at our caravan we found that Luke and Megan had arrived and were setting up. While enjoying an ale (the day was much more conducive to late arvo drinking than the previous one!) we watched as Greg and Kate also pulled into the van park. Now with a little group gathering going on we also found out that Carol and Kev from Mackay had checked into one of the other parks in town the day before we arrived! With plenty of things to see it was another day before we all caught up again.

That afternoon we watched as a couple of fishermen cleaned their catch on the local jetty and the girls were rapt to be able to toss some of the left overs to the two waiting sea-lions. Their speed through the water was made pretty clear to us when in an attempt to escape the larger one the smaller sea-lion almost surfed head on into a small kid swimming well clear of them! The lads that had been fishing out wider, about 20km had done pretty well, with plenty of local Nannygai and even Kingfish!

Our next day of touring once again took us to some spectacular beaches and scenery. Twilight beach when it is all said and done was our favourite by far. With a beautiful sheltered bay and perfect little shore wave rolling in the girls caught their best boogie board waves right there. We had visited a couple of others before we got there and as soon as we both saw it we knew we would be there for a couple of hours. Greg and Kate turned up and were equally impressed with the beach. After our little swim we headed off again following the Great Ocean Drive tourist trail. It took us along to some more beaches and we even got a chance to see the local soap box racers having a race meeting. The girls both looked the carts over and picked their favourites and were keen to have a go if we had have let them. Travelling on we came to the so called Pink Lake. Now not generally being a negative person I was pretty hard pressed to see anything pink in that lake!?

Spending an afternoon with the girls at the scooter park was our chance to catch up with all our friends in one place. Both Chelsea and Charli enjoy these parks as we have said before and it keeps them entertained for ages. As we all talked and laid out our plans for the next legs of our trips a bit of a plan was developing. We had always planned to travel to Kalgoorlie and then the Nullarbor. Luke and Megan were also keen on that plan as it suited their time frame as well. Carol and Kev were undecided on Kalgoorlie but after a yarn they to decided on that track. Greg and Kate still had some time in Esperance so it was to be a three car convoy the next morning to Kalgoorlie!

Our time in Esperance was definitely not long enough. However in saying that it is a place I would love to see again. It is an amazing part of WA and has plenty to offer for all types of tourists and visitors. There is a pretty large shopping precinct with enough shops to keep nearly everyone happy. With large scale farming on its back door and the some of the best beaches in the world it has plenty of variety. Kylz rates it as one of her top spots of the year and I would have to agree. Returning in a January to February time slot would see more good days than bad as well. As we have said before weather conditions can have a huge impact on your impressions of a particular place. Esperance however would need some pretty awful weather not to shine through, eventually, it is just that sort of special place.