Cape Le Grand

Cape Le Grand is situated approximately 50 km East of Esperance and is known as one of WA's most spectacular National Park's. Lucky Bay is perfect and pristine with an ocean coloured in imaginable shades of blue with the whitest of sand. This incredible beauty with Kangaroos sunbathing on the beach is quite amazing.

We drove to Esperance along the beach the other day. Although it is only 22 km and a magnificent trip, one has to be proficient driving in the beach conditions and that certainly isn't me. 

Beatrice - next year's birthday cake

Duke of Orleans

Wild Flowers

Jock dining at Lucky Bay - Cape Le Grand

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay caravan park with a million dollar view and a friendly Kangaroo

Kangaroo looking for food

Albatross

Relaxing with my book after a swim at Lucky Bay

Cape Le Grand National Park

Our caravan - Lucky Bay

My friend & Joey

Jock trying to catch Salmon - Lucky Bay

Guy caught a salmon as we were driving along the beach - Lucky Bay

Thistle Bay

Esperance WA

Cruise Ship

Esperance also known as The Bay of Isles is a scenic town on the southern coast of Western Australia with a Mediterranean -  like climate and the whitest beaches  in Australia. Esperance is one of WA’s best destinations with an abundance of spectacular beaches, National parks, natural attractions,  water activities, islands, granite headlands, rugged coastal scenery and challenging walks. The endless perfect white luminescent sand acts as a stunning contrast to the turquoise water which is majestic to the eyes.

Historically a goldfields port, the Esperance port is now the service centre for the pastoral hinterland. The Dempsters, a pioneer family of Scottish descent, were the first settlers in the town of Esperance in the 1870s.

Esperance is blessed with spectacular beaches, a perfect climate and a relaxed, laidback lifestyle with kangaroos sun baking on the beach. the Recherche Archipelago is made up of a necklace of several hundred islands, enriching the coast of this beautiful region. 

Cruise Ship

Esperance Waterfront

Iron Ore Carrier and Cruise Ship

Jock and Freddy the Frog

Memorial Day

Skylab's demise was an international media event, with merchandising, wagering on time and place of re-entry and nightly news reports. The San Francisco Examiner offered a $10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab to be delivered to their offices. 17-year-old Stan Thornton scooped a few pieces of Skylab off the roof of his home in Esperance, Western Australia and caught the first flight to San Francisco, where he collected his prize.

Esperance Windmill

Esperance Waterfront

Dempster St.

Town Centre

Towards Waterfront

Twilight Cove

Twilight Cove

Eight Mile Beach

Blessing of the Fleet - Bandy Creek

Bandy Creek car park

Wylie Beach

Wylie Beach

Niagara Dam and Leonora

Niagara Dam provides an unusual welcoming sight for visitors. It is an oasis in the wilderness which is a very popular camping and recreational spot. The concrete dam wall, constructed in 1897-98, is 225 metres across and 18 metres high.

When the dam was being constructed by the Railways Department, there was a nearby mining community called Niagara although flourishing was in desperate need of a fresh water supply. The locomotives that were soon to be steaming along a newly constructed railway heading north from Menzies to Leonora also required a lot of the precious liquid.

The dam construction required vast amounts of powered cement to be transported in barrels by camel train all the way from Coolgardie. Niagara Dam became a white elephant once completed as the town of Niagara was virtually deserted due to the gold having run out. Niagara, only briefly boomed as a gold centre, was unique in that the town’s main intersection had a hotel on all four corners – and each had a female publican! Vast supplies of artesian water had been discovered at nearby Kookynie. 

Camping sites and toilets

Beautiful Doggy

Picnic Area

 

Leonora Town Centre

Leonora High St.

Leonora is primarily a mining town of about 401 residents, about a third of whom are of Aboriginal descent. Although the area is too arid to support intensive agriculture Leonora is the service centre for the mining, exploration and well established pastoral industry. There are a number of major gold mines in the Shire, as well as the Murrin Murin laterite nickel project.The labour Government relocated asylum seekers from Christmas Island to a former mining camp in Leonora in 2010.