Cape Le Grand, Western Australia, AustraliaLucky Bay
Our month campground hosts was from
easter Sunday to 30 April.
Esperance 27-30 April
While in Esperance we walked and went
to see the Pink Lake that is loosing the algae that makes it pink.
We also drove a coastal drive to some of the beaches around
Esperance.
After a few days at Esperance to stock
up for the coming month we head out the 60km east to the start of
Cape Le Grand National park. Then 20 odd klm into Lucky Bay. This is
our first job of the year at Lucky bay campsite , looking after the
top loop.
There is 2 loops for camping here , the
bottom loop in the bushes and close to the original small campground
, now has 22 sites. The top new loop is more open until all the new
plantings of native bushes etc grows. This has 36 sites and in the
centre they are building new solar hot water showers and toilet block
and a new camp kitchen. At the moment the old solar shower /toilet
block in the bottom loop plus a portable flushing toilet up in the
top loop is it along with the old camp kitchen and BBQs close to the
beach.
Cape Le Grand NP is a rocky headland
with peaks of Mt. Le Grand 345m , Frenchman's Peak of 262m and
Mississippi Hill 180m.
So people come here from Australia and
overseas because of the advertising by Western Australia on this
place. So they come to see and touch squeaky white sand and crystal
blue water, kangaroos laying on the beach and a coffee van right on
the beach. Fish from the beach or just swim .
So most the time there we were very
busy and full. Most days people would be lined up waiting for someone
to leave so they could get in by 8am . On a few days of real good
weather they would be there at 6.30am and we would be full again by
11am. Until the new system due when all the building is finished its
first in gets a place if one is vacant. The rangers say its been full
most days of the last 6 months with most people staying 1 to 7 days.
So you can imagine the turn over of people each day.
We have to collect fees and explain the
park walks and wildlife to visitors, as well as keep toilets clean
and check each campsite for any left behind rubbish. Book work has to
be kept up , I balance cash and receipt every night and keep a
running sheet of who is where and for how long, so we know how many
are meant to be leaving each day. This can change when you do a early
morning walk some people who are supposed to be leaving can change
their minds and stay a few more nights. 'If the weather is nice this
happens as this is a beautiful place.
When we were first here couple years
ago, it was only 15 campsites and a day use area but now it is
expanding and I am not so sure about it. Rangers tell us there are
plans for a few onsite resort style tents, this to me is too much
and will take away from the natural place it is.
We did get time to do and see most of
the area so here they are.
The walk to the top of Frenchman's peak
gets hard at the top with smooth rock with no hand holds, very
slippery if wet. The views are good .
We drove to hellfire Bay and walked to
little Hellfire also very good views of both bays form the walk. We
found geckos under some rocks on this walk.
We drove to the other campground at Le
Grande beach to check it out for future camp hosting. More secluded
campsites in the bushes and a nice white sand beach -not bad , more
like what we like.
Larry got dropped off here one day to
walk back on coastal track to Hellfire Bay. The coastal track is
17km long the bit Le Grand beach to Hellfire is a 3 hour walk up and
down the hardest part of the track.
We walked the track from Lucky Bay to
Thistle cove a couple of times. The first bit of this is where I had
to keep walking to get phone coverage,
Lots of ornate Dragons and
Labillardiere's striped skinks [ look at his legs]on these walking
tracks along with Tiger snakes, dugites and crowned snakes and the
occasional Bardick- a member of the tiger snake family.
I went snorkelling a few times in Lucky
Bay and once at thistle cove.
A lone sub-adult Australian sea lion
sometimes hangs around the rocks at one end of the beach, I only saw
it once when snorkelling and I did not have the camera. Black sting
rays also hung around the rocks and lots of fish, and on some days
lots of squid, so people would fish from these rocks too.
When the squid were there or the salmon
came in then the Dolphins would come into the bay and you could see
them surfing the waves. Some swimmers had them join them. This would
always happen when we did not have the cameras or were too busy and
were told later in the day.
The end of our first week there Larry
hurt his back again helping one of the rangers, it took over a week
for it to come good. So we had to postpone our trip to Woody Island
until the third week we were at Lucky Bay. We were given a free trip
to Woody island so we could tell people all about it.
Woody island is part of the National
parks WA but part of the island is leased to a group that run a boat
trip to the island with a campground of huts and onsite tents and a
kiosk with seating. They also cater for private boats to stop and
have had weddings on the island.
This group that have the lease also
have the comfort inn in Esperance and have people to camphost on the
island, so we were looking into this. We met one of the team and the
boat captain and found out about the duties and pay for camp hosts.
They want you to stay 3 months to look after things when they are not
so busy with tourists , in other words in winter as they now have a
liquor license and passing boats still pull in for the night. So
look after kiosk cooking, campground , serve alcohol, and do
maintenance for no pay just food and a house to stay in. No Thanks.
So anyway trip is $65 to get there from
Esperance. Guided tour walk up over a bit of the island. Little
penguins are here we did not see any as it was morning and not
breeding season. We did see some native ash grey mice and skinks
-only because they were fed grated carrot so they come out at the
same time of the day expecting to be fed.
I snorkelled off of the jetty but it
was a little bit rough so did not stay in long. Did see red starfish
but was too worried I would be crashed onto rocks to go to far from
the jetty.
Back at Lucky Bay the kangaroos had got
so used to people feeding them that they would appear at breakfast
then go to the beach and come back to the campground as people
returned to cook dinner.
I do not know how many times we said
-do not feed them and there is signs everywhere do not feed kangaroos
and wildlife. Apart form the fact some of the things people feed them
is not good for them and they can die from not being able to digest
it , they can get aggressive trying to take food . I caught a few
breaking into peoples rubbish bags , food left out on tables, inside
tents raiding bags of food. Once I had to stop them licking BBQs and
latter that night two of the workmen who were camping there had
cooked a roast for dinner and lunches for a few days, had their hot
roast taken while they were at the camp kitchen doing the dishes.
They got back to the camp site in time to grab what was left from a
kangaroo. Who has heard of a roo eating meat roast meat, not good.
Most of the kangaroos in Lucky Bay
camping area are Common Wallaroo.
Most people staying there were nice and
most even the young backpackers were well behaved and mostly asleep
from all the walking, swimming, by 9pm.
I did get to go and try and rescue a
mouse from inside a ladies camper , it turned out not to be a native
mouse but a field mouse brought in from a plague area by many
campers. The first call out was ok at about 8pm but the one after
that after we had gone to bed was a bit much. I could not catch the
mouse and after getting a good look at it I had told her she would
have to just either feed it so it went to sleep and she could sleep
or name it and talk to it until she went to sleep as I was going back
to bed.
In the morning she left to go to
Esperance and buy mouse traps to put in the camper while she spent
time in a motel until it was caught.
We found a pretty frog on the beach in
the dry seaweed.
Two men were there a couple of days
carrying a big camera with GPS to map the tracks for Google earth.
They had to change who carried every couple of hours as it was heavy
and the tracks can be steep and slippery over the rocks.
I nearly forgot our Inland carpet
python that for some years has made its home in the rafters of the
old shower block . It sometimes made its way across to the ladies or
gents toilet end of the building giving some ladies a bit of a fright
when they looked up and it was looking down. It was getting a little
bit upset at all the work going on in the old building and had not
been seen for a few days before we left- hope it can move back to its
home when work finishes.
2025-05-22