23 January 2009

So the journey continues…..we left Bremer Bay last Tuesday and headed in to the Fitzgerald River National Park.This is a beautiful place and a great way to get through to Hopetoun and Esperance avoiding the highway.We stopped at West Mt Barren and thought it looked like and easy enough climb, so we threw Ruby in her special backpack and set off with abut 500 mls of water and no idea.About half an hour in to the climb, when we hit the sheer steep rocks, we were regretting wearing thongs and when we got to the top we regretted not bringing the fly spray - there were thousands of them.Anyway, the view was worth it and the climb down proved even more difficult in the dreaded thongs.

We spent the first night at a nice little spot called Point Ann and Nath finally managed to get the dingy in the water for a fish, but to no avail.I spent a few hours rescuing Ruby from the waves as she ploughs straight in to the water - I let her get dumped by a couple of little waves to try and give her a scare but she jus gets right back up and keeps going in to the water. Scares the bejesus out of us.

We kept going after Point Ann passing through Hopetoun on to Munglinup Beach.This was a great little spot but the water had massive swell, heaps of rips and a really fast current going all over the so I didn't go in past my ankles.About half an hour after we got there, a lady came racing up as 2 blokes in the camp had been caught in a rip and swept out to sea.A nearby camper luckily had a surfboard and managed to paddle them both to the nearby rocks - one of them had gone in to hypothermic shock so Nath took the troopy up the beach to retrieve him.I was trying to do my bit to help by boiling some water which, had I managed to throw on him would have resulted in third degree burns to go along with the hypothermic shock.A hot shower sufficed in the end.Anyway, we scored a bottle of wine out of it for our efforts which while unnecessary, was a lot nicer than my vinaigrette goon bag.

We also met a really nice couple Gerard (the surfer / rescuer) and his wife Nicole.Nath and Gerard went riverfishing and caught a feed of black bream - beautiful.They have spent the past 18 months travelling through northern Australia so were a great source on information for us on where to go.We will also be catching up with them on Australia day at Alexander Bay, between Cape Arid and Cape Le Grand.

So we are now in Esperance and it is definitely a lot bigger than when I was here last.It is a gorgeous town with so much to do.We set up in the caravan park yesterday and spent the entire weekly budget on food and booze and then kicked bag for a drink with our neighbours who are butchers from Kalgoorlie!They were such lovely people and we have promised to go over for a Barbie when we get to Kal.

We hit the beaches today and will probably do a bit more exploring around tomorrow and then we head off on Monday to Alexander Bay and the two big national parks.Anyway, I think I have probably waffled on enough for one blog - we will be out of range for the next couple of weeks so my next entry will probably waffle on even more.Over and out from another day in Western paradise.Taryn, Nath and Ruby aka. The Coits (thanks for that Larri!).