Down to the South Coast
Halfway to Esperance and even further to Cape le Grand NP… that means a whole lot of driving. As it was Easter the locals advised us to arrive early in Cape le Grand, since the campsites would be fully booked on a first come, first serve basis. With our hikes and stuff and the extra stop we made we arrived much later than expected. We ignored the signs saying that the campsite was full… drove right in the park. The ranger radioed that we were coming and granted us access to one of the camp grounds. As a matter of bad luck we missed the actual campsite. Now we were at the wrong place… we realised after 30 min! While people still took their chances to get a campsite we waisted our time taking photos of the setting sun in the bay. So we drove to the Lucky Bay campground (after realising we were a bit in the wrong direction…) where we found our luck. I talked to the park rangers and told them that we wanted to stay so badly… students from UWA… biologists (partly true), interested in nature, and causing no trouble (I think a lie). Anyway, I guess the park ranger was impressed enough to allocate us on the group campsite which was booked from Sunday… Good stuff, because we were about to leave anyway on that day. I don’t know… but the relief running through every vein made me so happy. Finally! Cape le Grand…. here we are.
Cape le Grand NP
That night we set up the campsite, cooked and had the best desert you can imagine: Booze! An absolutely tasteful Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. I guess it was the best rum I had in my life. An idea of Giorgio… even with 4 rum glasses. While stargazing the sky above us, the wind blowing from the Southern, and the howling of the owl, time slowly progressed towards bedtime. After the last glass of Jerry’s we called it the night.
Next morning I woke up early for my general photography stroll. Not too far from our campsite I was lucky enough to spot the first pygmee possum of my life! Their appearance is very similar to that of mice, although even these tiny animals have a puch and thus are member of the marsupial family. Although I wasn’t able to take photos, I was so glad to finally have seen one in the wild.
With the heat wave pushing temperatures up to 25 degrees we found us lucky enough to climb Frenchman’s Peak which provided views of the Esperance region with the stunning sea and landscapes waiting to be captured on camera. Standing at 262 m above sea level you get a particular view on the dazzling beauty of Cape le Grand NP and the 110 islands of the Recherche Archipelago. The peak was so well accessible by foot and it was truly worth the effort, taking around one hour to complete the return trip, but we spent almost an additional 2 hours to photograph and gazing at the landscape. By the way, we all agreed that the summit of Frenchman’s Peak had the shape of a French nose… Although I’m not sure if this is the reason for its name, we found it at least a good explanation.
Our next issue was that time was flying… So we thought we fly with time throughout our day. After the hike we went to Hellfire Bay and Thistle Cove where the rocks whistle. Many people were swimming and fishing and it was all of a sudden that we saw a seal swimming near the shoreline at Hellfire Bay. I guess it was just asking for a glitzy photo so I just did that. The rocks near the coast are inhibited by many sea birds, some of them really rare and it was good to see them from very close. The Southern Ocean, no matter how dangerous she can be, is eye-catching and full of life. These are moments that a photograph becomes simply unimportant compared to the realtime, smells, views captured in our memories and thoughts. Even so time does not matter, but what matters is taking the situation as real as it is without making up one’s mind.