I was looking forward to visiting Esperance. I had heard tales of the crystal clear water and was looking forward to surfing see through waves. We pretty much breezed thru the town, stopping only to pick up food and beers from the centre and headed out to Cape Le Grand. We lobbed into a spot at Lucky Bay which was busier than we expected. The place looked stunning from the drive in, but sadly the corner was about 3 ft deep in sea weed which extended about 100m up the beach. My memories of our 10 days mainly consist of cloudy days with fierce Southeasterly winds that howled along the beach and palpable boredom - the first time that I had felt it on this trip. We did have a couple of sunny days, and one little surf with semi offshore winds, but the wind and the stinky seaweed will be what I remember.
Eventually, I decided to pack up the van myself and head back into Esperance for a bit of power and reception to alleviate the gloom. It did the trick and the remaining 4 days before Tom flew in from work whizzed past quite nicely. The boys and I went swimming in the leisure centre a bit and hung our around the library a lot. In the main, Esperance was a friendly sort of place - locals were up for a bit of a chat and seemed very genuine.
When Tom came back, we had a lovely afternoon exploring the area around the Esperance beaches - a sort of mini Great Ocean Drive. Twilight cove had wonderful body surfing waves and Ned really cracked the method, catching lots more waves than he normally does.

We spent 2 days out at Cape Arid as well which was another 100 Kms east of Cape Le Grand. The bush camp out there was secluded and wind protected and we scored a little wave on the last day- although we had to drive about 20kms along the beach to get to it. The sand was really soft and on the way back, Tom took an angled run to reach some tracks closer to the sea, hit a real soft patch and we were suddenly stuck, with the tide coming in and only 2ft away from us. No shovel, skids or anything really. This was a worst case scenario eventuating before our eyes. We dug the wheels out and let the tyres down, and inch by inch, gradually clawed up on to some firmer packed sand with much relief. Too close for comfort, that one. A restorative beverage at the extremely cool Condingup Tavern on the way home was definitely required!
A final pleasant interlude was had at Keith and Jill Fitzpatricks lovely owner built place on the outskirts of town. Old friends of Charlie's, they had been super welcoming when we called, to the point of making Tom a chocolate birthday cake as dessert to celebrate his 40th birthday.

We left with a sense that Esperance, like lots of places, was memorable for the people we met, rather than anything else.