Cape Le Grand

Between Friday the 27^th January and Sunday the 5^th of Feb, we camped in the Cape Le Grand National Park (not too far east of Esperance).  We wanted to have a decent chunk of time in one place - and that’s exactly what we did.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the National Park.  We spent the first 5 nights camped at the Lucky Bay Camp Grounds.  There were quite a lot of people there while we were there and it was full (or mostly full) each day.  We had a few days to settle in at Lucky Bay before we started the School Routine for the year.  There are lots of resident Kangaroos that hop around the campground (sometimes VERY close) looking for food, and the kids loved spotting them each day.  One day they even came right to the door of our caravan.

Some of Lucky Bay's resident Kangaroos

What's up Skip!  No Food?

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand

While we were staying at Lucky Bay we didn’t rush around too much.  There were enough things to do to keep us very happily occupied, but we also got quite a bit of time to just sit down and relax while the kids rode bikes or played lego with some of the other kids who were camping there too. 

Each day we did school in the morning, and then in the afternoon we drove somewhere nearby to have a look at that area.  Some of the things we did around the kid’s schoolwork were: swimming in the beautiful clear waters at Hellfire Bay, We drove out to Duke of Orleans Bay, a spot of fishing, Drove along the beach at Lucky Bay to the lookout at the end of the Beach, Visited Thistle Cove and walked through the sand dunes, and Mike and Josh Conquered Frenchman’s Peak.

Enjoying Hellfire Bay

Relaxing in Dad's Hat

Lucky Bay from the lookout

Near Duke of Orleans Bay

Frenchmans Peak

Josh sitting on the summit of Frenchmans Peak

On Wednesday 1^st of Feb we moved to Le Grand Beach campground.  In contrast to Lucky Bay, Le Grand Beach has individual ‘sites’ for Campers and there are only a dozen spots  and each spot was isolated by at least 5 metres of bush.  It was much quieter than Lucky Bay.  At both National Park Camping grounds there were Toilets and showers, but the showers were solar powered (and had a limited supply of hot water) so if the day was cloudy, or you left your shower a bit late, it was luke warm at best!  Nonetheless, the facilities were really very good.

Josh's First day of school for 2012 - He is now in Year 2

Natalie's First day of school for 2012 - she is in Kindy

Once we setup our Caravan at Le Grand Beach, we Jumped in the car and headed for Esperance to re-stock our supplies.  We had been told you could drive 22Km’s along the beach to Wiley Bay and cut about 15Km off the trip to Esperance, so we decided to drive along the beach.  It was lots of fun to do a real beach drive, we even passed a Brumby trotting along the beach.

A Brumby trotting along Le Grand Beach

While we were in Esperance, the kids got a go on the skate park (which they’d been wanting to do ever since watching the competition on Australia Day), and since it was a school day they had it all to themselves.

We spent 4 nights camped at Le Grand beach campsite, we enjoyed many walks on the beach and a bit of fishing , the weather was not quite as good when we were camped here.  It was very windy and rained off and on. It was a very relaxing couple of days.

A view over the back of a sand dune at Le Grand Beach

The Mason Family enjoys Le Grand Beach