2023.12 - Great Ocean Drive - Esperance
Xander, Leanne and Erica continue their journey along the scenic route from Perth to South Australia, taking in dozens of coastal vistas.
This post is part of my epic summer 2023/2024 road trip adventure, spanning Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, also featuring Leanne and cameos from numerous other adventurers.
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Roadblocks
Morning of Day 2 started with a bit of problem solving, our brand new fridge was not working and we needed to fill our water tank.
We dropped into Hopetoun to bin our chicken and find a tap then made our way towards Esperance. As we left the highway to begin the Great Ocean Drive tourist route our progress was halted by 155 train carriages.
Pink Lake?
The first destination of the Great Ocean Drive is Pink Lake famous for it’s lack of pink colour, but this is all conveniently explained on the “Why Isn’t Pink Lake Pink” sign.
For the curious it’s due to changing salinity from salt mining and fresh water drainage.
LOOKOUT!
If you like lookouts you will love this drive. I very quickly lost track of which photos are from where because of how regularly there was somewhere to pull over, all of them providing a new vantage point to view the spectacular coastline!
Closer Look
We chose a few beaches at random to explore more thoroughly, lured in by photogenic stairs and rock pools.
Views for Days!
Everywhere you stop and everywhere you look a new fantastic vista!
Naked Ambition
One of the lookouts was covered in graffiti like this, including lots of arrows to a beach out of sight from the road. It seems there is a local or locals very dedicated to their cause. We decided to leave them to it and moved on.
Twilight Beach
We arrived at Twilight Beach in a brief window of sunshine and made the most of it with a picnic lunch and swim
Recherche Archipelago
Our last stop on the Great Ocean Drive was the rotary club lookout which includes views to Recherche Archipelago, the Archipelago continues well beyond this and we will be visiting one of the islands in our next post.
We also learned that Recherche and Esperance were the names of two of the first ships to survey this coastline.
New Batteries
Arriving in Esperance we were delighted to discover that a there was a Supercheap Auto open, even though it was a Sunday. We suspected our batteries might be the culprit for our failing fridge so we had a check done which identified one unstable and one at 30%. Supercheap did a complimentary install on our front battery but left us with the auxillary to do ourselves.
We set ourselves up in the Coffee Cat carpark and got to work, sadly not accompanied by latte’s as they were closed. One bolt in particular proved to be a challenge but we got the job done in a little over an hour and Supercheap were happy to take our old battery.
In Good Company
We finished the day by setting ourselves up for our next adventures by camping in Condingup and having an easy dinner at the local pub.
While our car spent time with all the other white utes, we also enjoyed time together as a family inside.
Reflections
We opted to leave the surfboards behind this trip due to difficulty storing and unloading them. Having body boards tucked behind the drivers seat instead was perfect for our afternoon dip at Twilight Beach
Trail Tip
Hoodie towels like the one that Leanne is wearing below are a game changer for beach-goers and I’d recommend them to anyone, with one of these you can get changed absolutely anywhere.
Not only does Leanne’s feature a beautiful picture of one of her favourite animals but it’s quick drying too!
Links
https://www.visitesperance.com/experiences/attractions/great-ocean-drive
Next post
I’m not getting a stable enough internet connection to commit to a release schedule right now.
When the story continues I’ll be covering our visit to Ben Island.
