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| OUR BIG TRIP MARY & OLI GOING AROUND AUSTRALIA |
ESPERANCE TO CEDUNA - Page 1
18 October 2007, Thursday
Today we started again the long drives - 500 km's from Albany to Esperance and the Nullarbor is next. We were lucky that it
stopped raining for a while so we could pack up the trailer almost dry. The drive was a little boring, saw a fox on the way and
could not kill it - shame. Anyway, we arrived in Esperance in the afternoon and settled in. We booked a boat trip to Woody
Island for tomorrow and that was it for today. No pictures from today.
19 October 2007, Friday
Woody Island tour was on today. The wind was pretty high, however the waves seem to be on the low side. The tour was not
booked out at all and the boat was pretty big, therefore lots of space available. Due to the size of the boat the journey should
be quite o.k. - hopefully. First we stayed in the port and the skipper explained the tonnage of the ships and exports from this
port - mainly grain and minerals (iron and nickel). A new mine close to Esperance will produce Nickel soon and they already
have 2000 stainless steel containers at the port for the transport mainly to Finland - how can they make money with that kind
of process... After the port, we shipped along the coast first having a look at a few beaches and luckily the weather was really
good in the morning and the colours are just fantastic. No wonder people say that Esperance has the best beaches in Oz - I
know that now everybody will shout - no it is... Sure !!! Going through the Islands, we came to one which houses a group of
goats. They all came on top of the ridge and jumped down when a helicopter flew over the island. On the way, we also saw
our first sea lions and geese. Before stopping on Woody Island, we went to seal rocks and saw lots of them - very cute when
they sleep and get the wake-up call from a huge boat just a few meters off the rock. The stop at Woody Island included
morning tea and a walk - which we did ourselves rather than with the group. You can also camp on the island and stay for a
few days - which in summer must be nice. Back from Woody Island, the clouds kept coming in and we knew that the rain
would be back in the afternoon and tomorrow. After the boat tour we did the Great Ocean Drive to test again the best beach
theory and you do not get disappointed - unfortunately, the weather was bad and clouds and wind did not allow the full
enjoyment of the places. Before heading back to camp we visited Sammy - a very big sea lion living under the jetty in the
middle of town. Just when we arrived a fisherman came onto the jetty and for some reason Sammy knew him very well - he
ran very quickly towards the jetty and received his fish from him. Great timing. We will come back tomorrow to have another
look at him. Now we know why he is so big and we will see again tomorrow. Below are the pictures from today.
18 October 2007, Thursday
Today we started again the long drives - 500 km's from Albany to Esperance and the Nullarbor is next. We were lucky that it
stopped raining for a while so we could pack up the trailer almost dry. The drive was a little boring, saw a fox on the way and
could not kill it - shame. Anyway, we arrived in Esperance in the afternoon and settled in. We booked a boat trip to Woody
Island for tomorrow and that was it for today. No pictures from today.
19 October 2007, Friday
Woody Island tour was on today. The wind was pretty high, however the waves seem to be on the low side. The tour was not
booked out at all and the boat was pretty big, therefore lots of space available. Due to the size of the boat the journey should
be quite o.k. - hopefully. First we stayed in the port and the skipper explained the tonnage of the ships and exports from this
port - mainly grain and minerals (iron and nickel). A new mine close to Esperance will produce Nickel soon and they already
have 2000 stainless steel containers at the port for the transport mainly to Finland - how can they make money with that kind
of process... After the port, we shipped along the coast first having a look at a few beaches and luckily the weather was really
good in the morning and the colours are just fantastic. No wonder people say that Esperance has the best beaches in Oz - I
know that now everybody will shout - no it is... Sure !!! Going through the Islands, we came to one which houses a group of
goats. They all came on top of the ridge and jumped down when a helicopter flew over the island. On the way, we also saw
our first sea lions and geese. Before stopping on Woody Island, we went to seal rocks and saw lots of them - very cute when
they sleep and get the wake-up call from a huge boat just a few meters off the rock. The stop at Woody Island included
morning tea and a walk - which we did ourselves rather than with the group. You can also camp on the island and stay for a
few days - which in summer must be nice. Back from Woody Island, the clouds kept coming in and we knew that the rain
would be back in the afternoon and tomorrow. After the boat tour we did the Great Ocean Drive to test again the best beach
theory and you do not get disappointed - unfortunately, the weather was bad and clouds and wind did not allow the full
enjoyment of the places. Before heading back to camp we visited Sammy - a very big sea lion living under the jetty in the
middle of town. Just when we arrived a fisherman came onto the jetty and for some reason Sammy knew him very well - he
ran very quickly towards the jetty and received his fish from him. Great timing. We will come back tomorrow to have another
look at him. Now we know why he is so big and we will see again tomorrow. Below are the pictures from today.
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| Above: The Seabreeze II - our catamaran at the port. Right: Not sure what this figure is doing at the port of Esperance. Far Right: This container lifter was just installed a couple of weeks ago and will be used for the stainless steel nickel carrying containers once the mine is up and running - BHP has too much money. |
| Wonderful coastline around Esperance - turquoise water and granite coastline - spotted with white sand beaches in-between. |
| The first sea lion and geese on the islands. |
| The goats driven crazy by the heli flying over - some of them did not do very well when jumping down the ledge. |
| Above and on the left some impressions from the Bay of Isles. On the right the first sea lion on seal rocks, just waking up for us. |