Day 27 - Friday 1 June 2012

Forecast for today was 11 to 20 with showers later, which did not eventuate. By 10:00 am it was clear skies and sunny with a temperature in the low 20s. After breakfast we walked to the town centre for coffee and papers again, and some fresh bread rolls for lunch - only 4.4 kms today.

When we got back to the caravan park we packed some lunch and headed for the Cape Le Grand National Park. The Park has a number of attractions, including Le Grand Beach, Frenchman's Peak, Hellfire Bay, Thistle Cove, Lucky Bay and Rossiter Bay. The park is about 50 kms east of Esperance with access along excellent sealed roads, apart from the final 6 kms in to Rossiter Bay ,which was gravel.

Cape Le Grand National Park

Approaching Mt Le Grand

Cape Le Grand and Boulder Hill

Our first stop was the Le Grand Beach camping area and the realisation that we could have travelled about half the distance by driving along the beach from Wylie Bay near Esperance. Have not done any beach driving yet as letting down tyre to a lower pressure and pumping them up again seems too much trouble, without the need to wash the salt away from under the vehicle.

We could have driven the beach from Wylie Bay

Di on Le Grand Beach

Le Grand Beach - very white sand

We walked through the camp sites, most of which were big enough for caravans.

Caravan spaces in the Cape Le Grand camping ground

We arrived at the camp ground at about 12:00 noon to find the camp ground about half full, but an hour later only one site remained.

Camping Ground filling fast

We had lunch on the beach before climbing up to the lookout for views of the camping ground, the beach and Frenchman's Peak in the distance.

Di enjoying the view

Next stop was Hellfire Bay and you guessed it - more white sand.

Hellfire Bay - more white sand

Hellfire Bay

As we drove out from Hellfire Bay we realised that Frenchman's Peak had an arch near the top of the peak.

Frenchman's Peak with its arch

A closer view of the arch

The view from the Frenchman's Peak car park

We continued on to Thistle Cove and Whistling Rock, which has a crack in the rock that whistles in the wind.

Whistling Rock at Thistle Cove

Di at Whistling Rock

Waves breaking in a gulch at Thistle Cove

Thistle Cove Beach from above

Thistle Cove Beach - more white sand

After leaving Thistle Cove we headed for the Lucky Bay Campground, which has separate camping and caravan areas, although the caravan area is a bit cheek by jowl, unlike the separate areas at Le Grand Beach.

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay caravan spaces in the camping ground

Our final stop was Rossiter Bay before we returned to the caravan park.

Rossiter Bay from the carpark

We finished the evening with a lazy tea, then sat back and enjoyed watching Richmond beat the Saints off the satellite.