They should spell Nullarbor with a Zzzz.
Today was to be the final day. We would reach either Esperance or Kalgoorlie. When in Victoria, we had meat a great couple from Kalgoorlie, who had said they were going to have to return there in Jan for a wedding. We had tried a couple of times telephoning them in the hope of meeting them in Kalgoorlie. The other choice was to take the short cut non sealed road to Esperance, that ran South from Belladonia, only 30 Kms further down the road from our camp spot.
We decided to call Butch and Jay one last time at Belladonia. Their phone was out of range so I figured they could not be home at Kal (as they called it). Esperance it was to be.
Rather than drive all the way west to Norseman, then go south to Esperance (total 391 Kms), we had decided to take the ‘bonza backroad’ from Belladonia southwest to Esperance, a mere 262 Kms. I had been secretly looking forward to this as driving on unsealed road after the kilometres of sealed road we had just covered, was a much more fun prospect.
Unfortunately the entrance of the road was closed, and the people at the Belladonia hotel/motel/cultural museum advised us against it. It didn’t look too bad to me at all, and we had covered much worse roads when we were in the red centre, of that I was sure. But with much grumbling and wistful looks at the road, and, frankly, me trying to get Darren to risk it anyway, we continued on the 391Kms of interminable sealed road to Esperance.
Before we left Belladonia I took a walk through the cultural museum there. Most is centred on the NASA Skylab crash landing into the area in the 70’s. There are pieces of the actual spaceship, and loads of newspaper articles about the colourful locals who first found it. Outside the museum/hotel/motel/petrol station an enormous sign reads
“In 1979 a spaceship crashed over Esperance. We fined them $400 for littering”.
Hah! Love that Aussie humour.
We left Belladonia at about 7.30 a.m., we still hadn’t adjusted to WA time so early mornings were not painful to me yet. The road felt long, with not much to see, as we travelled the 191 Km to Norseman, then turned sharp left to head South for the 200 kms to Esperance
We made it! After much peering into the horizon we saw the ocean once more. First stop – a boat and engine broker. You may remember we had a trifle bad luck with our boat engine (see 18 Jan), consequently we needed to get it looked at and hopefully written off, so we could get another on insurance.
Next stop WA National Parks office. In SA and NSW you can buy a pass that allows you entry to almost all parks, and camping. I discovered this was not so in WA. $80 will buy you access to most parks, but none of the popular ones. It also does not allow you to camp, that you pay for separately. On discovering that a night at Cape Le Grande National Park near Esperance (where “Lucky Bay’ is, reputedly one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia) would cost us $11 entry + $9 each camping = $28 = TOO MUCH!- I was ‘not happy Jan’.
A quick visit to Woolies (food), Caltex (fuel) and a charity store (clothes) and we went back to the boat shop where we had left our engine, for an update.
While I ruminated in the car on the cost of sleeping, Darren was making friends with the owner of the shop. Just as I had decided we would hang the price, and stay at Cape Le Grande NP anyway, Darren returned to the car with 2 mud maps to local free, or nearly free, camp spots. They were local secrets! Hooray for the man who makes friends everywhere, and is constantly leaving me in the car while he ‘has a chat’. Saved again!
With a lifted heart I drove out of Esperance, past Cape le Grande and down a small track down to the bayside camp ground. $4 a night, we would stay a week!
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