Coweramup to Albany to Esperance - 15-17 February 2010

From Coweramup we drove to Albany via various extremely beautiful back roads, passing through Manjimup where we visited the Manjimup Regional Timber park.

We stopped at a lookout to catch a glimpse of Nornalup Inlet.

The ground was covered with yellow kangaroo paws( an Australian native flower).

On the way we were passed by a Google map camera car so look out for us in Google Maps at some time in the future.

Albany [pronounced Al-bany not All-bany] was too crowded for a long stay, so after an excellent dinner at the Earl of Spencer Historic Inn we moved on to Esperance.

Esperance was named by Bruni D'Entrecasteaux after his ship L'Esperance [loosely translated as hope]. It is a very attractive town. 

 

We stayed in the Esperance Sea Front Caravan Park opposite the beach. It was a lovely swimming beach and like all beaches in Esperance is safe.

We took the MacKenzie Island cruise on the MV Seabreeze IV to Woody Island the only Island in the Recherche Archipelago open to humans, the rest being Class A Reserves. 

We saw sea lions, fur seals and were treated to two Sea Eagles retrieving fish thrown from the boat. At Woody Island we went on the glass bottomed boat Miss Woody, to see the underwater flora and fauna. 

At the end of the cruise we threw breadcrumbs and watched fish fight for every breadcrumb. They were blue streaks of hunger.

We then walked around the Island, enjoying some wonderful views. 


 
There is a great walk along the beachfront in Esperance. Sammy the Sea Lion has taken up residence underneath the tanker jetty. He is a real ham for the camera and has generated a cottage industry as everyone walks to the jetty to say hello to Sammy, purchase a cup of excellent coffee from the Coffee Cat, sit on the chairs or in the shade of the rotunda and enjoy the coffee, sun and sea air.

We had hoped to camp in the Cape Le Grand National Park but a bushfire at Lucky Bay [see the smoke in the photo to the right] meant it was closed, so promising to return later we set off for Hopetoun.