Perth to Esperance - Day 4

Today we drove out to Frenchman's Peak, 50km East of Esperance. On the way we spotted a poisonous tiger snake, wild kangaroos and emus running passed the bus.

It took us about 2 hours to complete the return climb to the summit. I found it tough but the views were superb, it felt like you could see forever. On one side was the view of the whole Espernce area and on the other a view of Cape Le Grand National Park and the 110 islands of the Recherche Archipelago.

Back on the bus and out to Lucky Bay. I've never seen sand so white, it looked like snow but it felt really strange to walk on, like cornflower. When you scuffed your feet on it, it squeaked like a clean plate when you rub your finger on it. On to Hellsfire Beach (voted top one of the top 10 beaches in the world) for a bbq lunch. We all just chilled out here, sunbathed, swimming.

Next was pink lake, so called because when the weather gets very hot, the algae living in it produces a suncream to protect itself and the sunscrean is pink. It obviously wasn't hot enough for us to see it, just had a tinge of pink about it.

On to Twilight Beach for a couple of hours, we played cricket on the sand which was great fun. My bowling was spot on but my batting leaves a lot to be desired! Connor, the irish lad hadn't played before, so first time in bat he missed the ball and threw the bat by accident...was funny to see.

Back to the hostel in Esperance and after another bbq dinner I got myself ready to go out. Everyone else had decided to sit in again! Can't beleive it...we still hadn't seen anything of Esperance the town itself, only the areas around it. So I decided to go out on my own anyway. I walked along the sea front to town. On the way was a jetty, it was twilight by then. The jetty was quite busy so I walked over to see what was happening. There were big wooden tables along the jetty where fisherman were gutting and scalling their catch, chucking the guts in the sea. In the sea was Sammy the Sea Lion eating it all up. I got talking a family standing next to me and it turns out Sammy is quite a local celebrity and locals bring their children to watch Sammy, who turns up at the same time every night for a free feed. The locals had watched him be chased away by a shark the previous week and hadn't expected to see him again, so it was a nice surprise for everyone that he was back.

After that I turned to walk off the the jetty and noticed a film being projected on to a building opposite, as I got closer I could see it was footage of flooding and devastion. The lady next to me explained how the recent flooding had effected Esperance, with fisherman still unable to get out to sea because the sea still hadn't come back in so all their boats were still beached. The sea had washed away the beaches and they had to physically bring sand in to replace it. A few people I spoke to thought it would take at least 10 months to correct itself.

I walked on to the first bar I came across, the Pier. In there I found a table outside and just people watched. There was a karoke on and the place was pretty full. 2 girls had just finished their shift behind the bar and came and sat at my table, Christy and Heidi. They were friendly and seemed to know everyone. I decided to try the 2nd of 3 pubs in Esperance town and asked if they wanted to join me. It was really strange, they'd lived there for 12 months and never been in the other pubs, it's very territorial there. I convinced them to come for one and Christy didn't want to leave...she loved it. We all got up and sang on the karoke in The Esperance pub. It was fairly empty and you get a free beer for every song you do. It turned into a really good night. The pubs although rough (what with the police escorting a guy away, full of drunk miners, open conversations about drugs and fights) were real. No pretentiousness, just very straight forward people who were proud of where they lived. Through Christy and Heidi I met lots of people who offered to show me around and about their town. The 3 of us walked back to the Pier, where there was time for one song on the karoke before going to the attached 'nightclub'. They called it their towns nightclub, but it was just another room in the pub with a late licence and loud music. I was really flattered, Christy spoke to her boss and out of the blue I was offered a job behind the bar with free accommodation if I would like to stay on in Esperance. I would have loved to have taken them up on the offer but had to get back to Sydney to meet my mum. The club finished at about 2am, and after we'd eaten a sausage roll from the local garage Heidi gave me a lift home.

This had been the best day of my time in Australia so far - completed emersed in real ozzie life.

Frenchman's Peak (2nd hill from the left)

Lucky Bay

Twilight Beach