Esperance

The Esperance region of WA is one of Australia's fastest growing visitor destinations. It has a temperate climate all year round, very white sandy beaches and brilliant blue/aquamarine waters. Esperance was voted Australia's best town by the Australian Traveller Magazine in 2009 so you can see what the fuss is about. Many of the visitors claim it has the most beautiful coastline in Australia. We thought in went really close.

 View over West Beach Esperance

Bluehaven Beach Esperance

Twilight Beach Esperance

Twilight Beach

They have a walkway which runs along the waterfront from the town about for about 20Km west to the famous beaches. These beaches are all beautiful and it would be hard to pick the best one. The main beaches are West Beach, Bluehaven Beach, Salmon Beach, Ten Mile, Observatory Beach and Twilight Beach. The latter has been voted many times to be the best beach in WA.

Twilight Beach

Twilight Beach is a spectacular family beach with crystal clear water and snow white sands. The beach curves to the southwest and it becomes increasingly protected by its orientation and two large offshore rock outcrops. Although it was still cool when we were there, some people were swimming. The beach is patrolled during the summer months on weekends. Ten Mile Beach is the best swimming beach due to the rocky shore acting as a natural breakwater. Surfing is apparently good here. We were told that the local naturalist beach (otherwise known as nudist beach) was just west of here but we chose not to look.

Esperance Coastline

On the second day in Esperance I took the bike along the Great Ocean Cycle Way. There are certainly some of the best ocean views here you would see anywhere. There are a number of benches and information boards along the way to help with identifying the landmarks. The benches were handy as there were some pretty good hills on the way!

View East from Observatory Hill

There are so many places of interest in and around Esperance you would need a week or more to see them. Bays such as Wylie Bay, Hellfire Bay and Esperance Bay itself make up the coastline and a number of national parks with some of the largest remaining wilderness areas of WA are close by. The Cape Le Grand National Park is about 50Km east and is one of WA's best known and most spectacular. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit this park but may get back in the future.

Sea Lion at Tanker Jetty Esperance

We took a walk out onto the Tanker Jetty which jutts out into Esperance Bay. This jetty was built as a deep water wharf in 1935 as an excellent facility to unload bulk fuel and load grain for export. It ceased this use in 1977 and is now a tourist attraction and used for fishing. We saw this large sea lion at the beach near the jetty and he created a lot of interest with his antics, especially when he beached himself and clapped to the crowd.

Esperance Viewed from the Tanker Jetty

Unfortunately the jetty is falling into disrepair with costs to restore the timber components becoming almost prohibitive. We heard the council engineer on the radio say the the timber jetty would eventually be closed any taken down and a new jetty, made from steel and concrete, built in its place.

Sammy the Seal - an Esperance Icon

A photographic icon in Esperance at the entrance to the Tanker Jetty is Sammy the Seal. It's supposed to be lucky if you rub his head.

Sealife Fountain on the Esperance Waterfront

This fountain has been built at the bottom of the main street in Esperance. Not sure what is is called but it impressed me with its design and focus on the local sea life. It looked like something you would find in Italy or Greece.

The Recherche Archipelago from Observatory Hill

Esperance is about 490 Km east of Albany on the Southern Ocean It has a population of around 11,00 people and is a flourishing tourist destination with a huge variety of accomodations. The first landing here was by two French frigates in 1792 who were on a mapping voyage of the Australian coast. They took shelter off Observatory Point. The ships were the L'Esperance (hence the towns name) and the L'Recherche. The L"Recherche Archipelago of 110 islands and 1500 islets in the area has been named after this second ship. The town attracted enormous attention in the 1950's when Amercian investors established large landholdings near Esperance. The success of their farming methods caused an influx of farmers from all parts of Australia which has helped to make Esperance the prosperous town it is today.
Would have liked much more time here but had to move on and up to Kalgoorlie, before coming back to cross the Nullarbor.