A week ago today we left Clive and Jo’s in Perth to head south and it actually feels like it’s been longer as we seem to have seen so much in those 7 days.

We headed down through Brookton, stopping for a coffee there before continuing on to Kulin.  This is just a little country town – spotless and really well maintained who offer a free camp area to RVs.  There’s a toilet block which is immaculate with a free hot shower and even a dump point with water if you need it.  It’s straight across the road from the pub which does great meals.  What a little gem.  Anyway we got set up and settled in for the night.  Next day we did a circuit drive which took us to Hyden – another lovely town and out to Wave Rock.  I’d considered staying at the caravan park there but so glad we decided on Kulin and a day trip instead.  We came back via the Tin Horse Highway.  It’s a stretch of road of about 15km where each property tries to outdo their neighbour with tin horses made from all sorts of bits and pieces.  It apparently started off as an eye catcher for Kulin Annual Race day and just took legs from there and is now a really popular tourist attraction.   I’d packed a sandwich lunch so we stopped off at a nice little roadside spot for that then made our way back to Kulin.  At night we shouted ourselves tea at the pub – Scotch fillet, salad and chips for $18 – pretty good value.  Up and packed up the next morning to head to Ravensthorpe via Lake Grace and Newdegate. All was going well till we stopped off at one of the Lake Grace salt lakes and didn’t realize we’d turned left instead of right.  We were in the midst of a mass of country roads anyway and good old Google maps just kept trying to make it work.  After about 30km we figured we were definitely heading in the wrong direction and so we about turned and headed back to the lake where we realized where we’d gone wrong.  Anyway we got to Lake Grace in time for lunch instead of smoko then carried on to Ravensthorpe in the afternoon.  This was another nice little town with a park set aside for RVs – though no hot showers and the toilets were actually over the road.  But it was a good spot to settle for a couple of nights.  We had a drive around town and checked out the painted silos then back to cook tea and bed.   Next day we took a drive to Hopetoun which is another lovely coastal town with a nice beach and we started to see the beautiful greens and blue in the ocean.  We drove then along to Mason Bay and Starvation Bay before doing a loop back past Munglinup back to Ravensthorpe.  

The plan for the next day was to head to Esperance.  We were keen to stay at Lucky Bay which is about 60km east of Esperance but its managed on the Parks and Wildlife website and was constantly booked out. The trouble is that they don’t do refunds so if people change their plans which it seems happens often, they don’t bother cancelling their booking and so they end up with empty unused sites, and guess DPAW don’t care since they’ve got their money anyway.  However Nudge and Carol had managed one night there and when we were messaging each other about it she advised me to just keep constantly checking the website and every now and again one might become available.  I’d jagged one for Saturday night a couple of nights earlier at 9.30pm just before I was about to turn the light off and sleep but ideally we wanted two.  Anyway I kept trying – but nothing then as we were only about an hour from Esperance (and the phone reception was very intermittent) I checked and there was one for that night.  Bargain – crossing my fingers I wouldn’t lose reception I quickly booked it. Success!  So we carried on through Esperance stopping for lunch and some provisions and arrived at Lucky Bay.  Oh my goodness – the water had to be seen to be believed and the white, white sand. The camp site itself is really great with nice clean modern toilets and well maintained level sites.  We got ourselves set up then took a drive onto the beach.  It was very windy though and when I felt the water – it was cold! – though not as bad as I’d thought. Then home for a couple of drinks, tea and bed.

Next morning we set off exploring heading to the next bay along Rossiter Bay first, then coming back to Lucky Bay to the Bean Café – a caravan which parks on the beach, provides big chairs and sells amazing coffee with damper and bush plum jam. We had a chat to Doc, the owner who told us that Condingup Tavern did really nice meals.   So we took off to check out Wharton Beach which I think is even prettier than Lucky Bay.  After having a wander along the beautiful sand and dipping our toes in the ocean we drove to Condingup Tavern where we had a delicious burger for lunch.  We headed back towards Lucky Bay but checked out Thistle Cove,  Hellfire Bay and Cape Le grand Beach where we parked up on the sand, got out our chairs and enjoyed a beer as we watched the waves.  Bliss.  

Back to camp and drinks, some music, tea and bed.  A huge day.

Yesterday we headed back into Esperance stopping off at the Esperance Stonehenge – an exact replica made in Esperance pink granite.  The caravan park we’d hoped to stay at was full so we headed to another one – Pine Grove which was peaceful and quiet in bush surroundings but sadly in need of some TLC to perk it up.  It was also expensive at $40 for an unpowered site and not even a dump point on site.  However we were set up before lunch and took off exploring.  We did the Great Ocean drive which is a loop of about 40km along some of the most amazing beaches I’ve ever seen.   Neither of us had any idea that there were beaches like this in the south west of WA.  We’d always thought all the beautiful beaches were up north but no – these ones rivalled any beach anywhere in the world.  Add to this that it was a glorious sunny day with a temp of 34 and we were just totally overwhelmed with it all.  Again I’d packed a sandwich lunch so we stopped off at Twilight Bay and had lunch there.  All the beaches were quite busy and heaps of people were swimming – but they must be tougher than us – the water still felt too cold for us.  After we’d completed the loop we drove out to Lucky Bay Brewery which was really busy.  We sampled a paddle of beers – some really nice ones and then enjoyed the live music which started.  They were cooking wood fired pizzas and they looked so deliciously tempting that we abandoned our plan to have steak for tea back at the van and shared a pizza instead. Another big day with a fairly early night.

This morning we packed up at the caravan park then ran round town – emptying the cassette, refilling one of the gas bottles and getting fuel before heading west again.   Since there were no coffee shops en route we pulled into a picnic spot to make our own coffee and discovered that the solar didn’t seem to be charging.  It had been a fairly dull morning but we’d already driven a few kilometers which should have had the levels up a bit.  Anyway we carried on and as planned we’re at Coulters Camp – a gravelled area a couple of kilometers off the highway.  Craig has had a chance to check out what was happening with the solar and battery and discovered that it was a dodgy fuse which he’s been able to fix and so all’s well again.  There’s no one else here at the moment so we’ll have a quiet afternoon and night before heading to Bremer Bay in the morning.  See you later.

Sudden change of plan - we had no phone reception at Coulters Camp, the flies were horrendous and it was crazy windy, so we decided to head towards Ravensthorpe and are now camped up at East Ravensthorpe free camp - good reception and out of the wind a bit. So I'll be able to get this entry published.