DAY 92 – Esperance

Good Morning Esperance!
 
Low 12°c (54°F) – High 15°c (59°F)
57km
 
Will wonders ever cease - a sunrise that wasn’t obscured by clouds.  I had peeked out the window about 6.30am and there was a bit of colour showing but was too cosy to get out and take a photo.  Half an hour later there was lovely golden sunshine and with water still lying on the entry road to the park it was reflected so nicely I had to take my shot.
 
Feeling much better that there was a bit of sunshine we took our time getting organized this morning and it was nice to be able to have the door of the van open for some fresh air that didn’t chill you to the bone for a change.  I’m always catching up on photos and my memories of each day so after lunch we headed out for a look around.
 
Esperance is in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, on the Southern Ocean coastline. The urban population of Esperance was 12,145 at June 2018 and its major industries are tourism, agriculture and fishing.
 
European history of the region dates back to 1627 when the Dutch vessel “Gulden Zeepaert” passed through waters off the Esperance coast and continued across the Great Australian Bight.  French explorers are credited with making the first landfall near the present day town, naming it and other local landmarks while sheltering from a storm in this area in 1792. The town itself was named after a French ship, the Espérance, which is French for "hope".
 
In 1802, British navigator Matthew Flinders sailed the Bay of Isles, discovering and naming places such as Lucky Bay and Thistle Cove.  Whalers, sealers and pirates followed, as did pastoralists and miners, keen to exploit the free land and cash in on the gold boom in the gold fields to the north.
 
The first European settlement of the Esperance townsite area was by the Dempsters, a pioneer family of Scottish descent, in the 1860s.  The Dempster brothers, Charles, Edward, Andrew and James, were granted 123,000 hectares (304,000 acres) of land in the area, first settling in 1864.  They initially brought sheep, cattle and horses overland from Northam, but in 1866 they shipped stock to the Esperance area from South Australia. They built Esperance's first landing, but only one ship made the Adelaide to Esperance voyage in the first year.
 
Once other settlers started taking up land on the Esperance coastal plain, a small settlement developed, serving as an important link in the Overland Telegraph between Albany and Eucla.  A telegraph station was opened in 1876, although the formal gazettal of the townsite did not occur until 1893.  The town jetty was also built through the 1890s, following the discovery of gold in the eastern goldfields region. At this point, Esperance became the "gateway to the Goldfields."
 
In 1979, pieces of the space station Skylab crashed onto Esperance after the craft broke up over the Indian Ocean. The municipality fined the United States $400 for littering.  The fine was paid in April 2009, when radio show host Scott Barley of Highway Radio raised the funds from his morning show listeners, and paid the fine on behalf of NASA.  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. Seventeen-year-old Stan Thornton scooped a few pieces of Skylab off the roof of his home in Esperance, caught the first flight to San Francisco, and collected the prize.
 
Esperance has the only port in the south-east of Western Australia – the Esperance Port Authority completed an A$54 million upgrade in 2002. The upgrade made the port one of the deepest in southern Australia.
 
Near the town itself are numerous beaches, offering surfing, scuba diving, and swimming. Nearby are a number of salt lakes, including Pink Lake which, despite its name, is rarely pink in colour. Esperance is also home to the Cyclops wave, said to be the world's heaviest wave with massive amounts of water unloading on shallow reef.  Esperance also has a number of wind turbines supplying electricity to the town and had the first electrical wind farm in Australia, built at Salmon Beach as a research facility in 1987.
 
First stop for us though was Op Shopping for more Pirate gear for the haunted house.  I figured if I had a look in each town we visited there might be some good finds and ultimately it will save me some time and stress when we get home.  Of the three op shops in town we did manage to get a few good pieces for a reasonable price (under $30) including jackets, vests, a white shirt, a red scarf, some decorative braid and even 2 pirate hats.  The third shop was wayyyy too expensive.
 
After a quick drive through town we headed west to check the coastline and the Pink Lake.  I had heard a bit about Esperance but did not realize two things – 1 – how many islands are located off the coast in this area – 2 – what I had heard didn’t do justice to it at all.  When the sun is out this area is just stunning with its white beaches and turquoise water.  The rocks provide an eye-catching colour contrast and lots of opportunities to photograph the spray of the water – known in our camp as “splashy splashy”.  Our hearts are obviously divided as despite relating heavily to the outback, we’re also “water” people – particularly ocean water.  Being by the ocean, watching the waves come in, the birds, rock pools, I’m in my happy place and I would gladly sit by the ocean for hours and just soak it in so today made me very happy and I loved the photos I came away with.
 
This whole area has been so well developed providing countless opportunities for access to the beach, lookouts and just areas to park to take in the magnificent view, I hate to say it but I think it rivals the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.  The islands too add to the interest and there are more appearing as a hazy shadow on the horizon that the camera simply didn’t pick up because of the rain between us.
 
As the afternoon wore on the sun came and went between clouds and by the time we made our way to the Pink Lake there was no sun and no pink unfortunately so we didn’t even bother getting out of the car.  We wound our way back to town and headed to the local “Woollies” to do some grocery shopping as this will be our last opportunity before leaving Norseman (which didn’t have much to offer grocery wise) and heading east across the Nullarbor.  It is a relief to see the prices of food, and fuel for that matter, being a bit more like home although fuel isn’t going to be a pretty price on the Nullarbor.  Arriving back at the caravan park around 5.00pm there was a glorious rainbow across the bay opposite the park.  Hopefully this one holds its promise about no more rain for a while.
 
After unpacking groceries it was time to cook some more meat for Kitty’s dinners over the next couple of weeks which will almost get us home.  Of course it was another NRL match to watch (YAY Storm!) and then a late dinner.  Once again it was lovely to be able to have the door of the van open until it started to get a bit too cool outside.