Cape Le Grand NP, Western Australia

 

Sometimes the wind just isn't right for sailing in the direction we want to go. Sometimes that's okay. There are six national parks in the Esperance region. The closest, Cape LeGrand National Park is only about 50km (35 miles) to the east and Del offered the use of her car again. When the weather gives you lemons (and friends lend you cars), make lemonade. We were off bright and early, heading to the national park.

The park covers an area of ~78,600 acres and is an ancient landscape. The coastline is mostly granite outcrops and boulders, fringed with white sand beaches overlooking the Recherche Archipelago and the Southern Ocean. Inland, the parklands are bush-covered sand plain with an occasional swamp or fresh water pool thrown in for good measure. Le Grand is named after one of the officers on L'Esperance, one of D'Entrecasteaux's ships that arrived in the 1792 French expedition.

We paid our $12/car entry fee at the unmanned entrance station and headed directly to Lucky Bay. We missed this anchorage on our way through the Recherche Archipelago because it wasn't a safe anchorage for the current wind direction, but we'd heard much about it. We weren't disappointed. The sweeping sand beach and aquamarine waters were stunning. We walked the beach, climbed up the dunes and evaluated how difficult it might be to land a dinghy here with the current swell and rollers.

But the primary reason for coming to this beach was that a small fresh water stream ran across the shore to the ocean and kangaroos regularly watered here. As we walked alone along the beach, we were disappointed that no kangaroos showed their faces. Wrong time of day, I guess. We did, however, spot several rock parrots, a new species to tick off our Australian bird list.

Banksia, named after Joseph Banks, naturalist aboard the Endeavor, on Captain Cook's first major expedition (1768-1771), grows abundantly here in the sandy soil. I'm not sure we have anything like it in the US. We saw it growing for the first time in New Zealand.

Just when we'd nearly given up, a possibly-grey something of a blur caught our attention near the edge of the bush. Could it be a kangaroo? And then the grey blur hopped onto the beach in clear view.

Oh, my … it was a kangaroo, no two kangaroos, no three kangaroos ... drinking, hopping, munching, and preening on the beach. A female and her joey laid down for a rest.

We made our way up the beach, closer and closer. We didn't want to frighten them, but I was keen to get some good photos. As I stood there quietly, snapping photos, much to my surprise, they hopped up to me, gave me a sniff, allowed me to give them a pat on their backs and proceeded to eat grass roots nearby. We spent well over an hour, watching, photographing, interacting and enjoying. What a morning!

There are several other scenic bays within the park and we stopped at them all for a look-see. At Thistle Cove (named by Flinders after Ship's Master, John Thistle), we walked on smooth, granite rocks to view the bay and then past Whistling Rock, a wave-shaped rock, standing on end, that acted as a natural amphitheater and eerily reflected the sounds of the surf.

The Aborigines have inhabited the area for centuries, if not millennia, and the Njunga people are acknowledged as the traditional custodians of the park. Several info signs and Aboriginal paintings provided insight into the Dreaming legends of the area, none so enchanting as that related to Frenchman's Peak.

Aboriginal people were camping by the sea and told their children to stay in camp with the elders while the parents were gone. The children disobeyed and went “walkabout”. They discovered an eagle's nest and stole the eggs from it. The mother eagle, upset by the theft, picked up the children and dropped them into the sea. Their parents still mourn for them. Moral of this story: Obey your parents.

Though few flowers were in bloom, we did enjoy the showy blossoms of the chittick (lambertia inermis), a shrub that is endemic to this part of Western Australia.

To top off the day, on the way back into town we found the small Kepwari Wetlands Trail at Walden Lake, a 3.6km walk on well-maintained trails and raised boardwalks with bird hides and lovely banksia canopies along the way. We saws lots of waterbirds and waders and thoroughly enjoyed the contrast between ocean and fresh water flora and fauna.

Tomorrow? We need to think about leaving soon. Let's see what old Neptune has in store for us.

Huge Littering Fine in Esperance, WA

 

Walking by the Esperance Museum the other day, we did a double-take. There sitting on their front lawn was a rather large replica of the US space station, SkyLab. “What on earth for?”, we wondered. A huge banner on the side of the building proclaimed “In 1979, a spaceship crashed over Esperance. We fined them $400 for littering.” They had us … we had to go in for a visit and learn more.

On May 14, 1973, Skylab, the United States' first space station, was launched unmanned by a Saturn V at the Kennedy Space Center. Three manned missions to the station were conducted between 1973 and 1974. The orbiting workshop was designed for research on scientific matters, such as the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body. Though Skylab was devised for just a 9-year lifespan, NASA hadn't really planned for bringing the craft back to Earth at the end of its mission. Oops! In late 1978, when NASA engineers discovered the station’s orbit was decaying rapidly, there was a mad rush to come up  with a solution … one alternative … alter its orbit and let it become space junk. That didn't work and it became evident Skylab was coming home … in a blaze of glory. In the early morning hours of July 12, 1979, in Skylab's final orbital path, it's 34,981st, the craft began breaking up over the Indian Ocean, but many of its pieces cascaded to Earth in the Esperance area. Miraculously, no lives were lost and minimal damage was done.

One large glass display in the museum encased numerous pieces of Skylab.

Some were so large, they didn't fit into the display case.

About the littering fine … The Esperance municipality fined the United States $400 for littering ... someone had to collect all those spacecraft parts strewn hither and thither about the area. The hefty fine was never paid. Nevada-based Highway Radio's host, Scott Barley, happened to read about the unpaid fine and, on a lark, challenged his morning show listeners to raise the funds. He was successful and the fine was paid on behalf of NASA in 2009. The check was cashed, but a copy remains in the museum. It seems Esperance forgave the 30 years of late fees and interest and even accepted the paid fine in US dollars. Pretty generous of them!

Skylab's crash was obviously not a surprise and therefore bets were placed worldwide on the time and place of its re-entry to earth. The San Francisco Examiner offered a $10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab to be delivered to their offices. Stan Thornton, a 17-year old Esperance fellow, climbed onto his roof, collected a few pieces of Skylab, caught a flight to San Fran and collected the prize. How cool is that.

A little Skylab trivia for you …

The Skylab program cost $2.2 billion from 1966 to 1974, or $16 billion in 2014 inflation-adjusted dollars. Its three missions of three-man crews spent 510 total man-days in space; each man-day costs $21 million in 2014 dollars.

… the rest of the museum. It's been housed in an old railroad goods shed (1902) and a Customs bonding shed (1895) since 1976 and it's crammed full of local memorabilia, railroad cars, farm implements, a pilot boat … pretty much every facet of life from the 19th century to present in Esperance is represented.

They even have a tin dunny (outhouse) on display, a single-holer complete with a large spider hanging in the corner. It seems redback spiders like hiding in dunnies … especially under the toilet seat. Ouch! There's even a song about it. Have a listen.

Around Town - Esperance, Western Australia

 

One of things we enjoy doing in a new port is learning and identifying things that differentiate it from all the rest. It might be the way the Esperance foreshore is lined with Norfolk pines or the way the town embraces these beautiful trees and makes them the centerpiece of the town center with benches that wrap around the huge trunks.

There's a lot of history here in which Esperance folks obviously take pride. There's the Mackenzie waterfront garden we've spoken of, and various ocean and historical sculptures and artifacts displayed along the foreshore.

They've even embedded historical markers and brass castings of marine life into their sidewalks.

The shire's first school, a small, but handsome stone building, is now the RSL (The Returned and Services League... like the VFW organization in the US) headquarters in town.

There's a tribute to Sammy the Seal and great views at the end of the historic tanker jetty, we're told. However, nearly the whole foreshore is currently cordoned off for construction, including the jetty access, and we never got to see Sammy. And that “boutique aquarium” that Lonely Planet described has been gone for a couple of years … probably taking the “pink” from Pink Lake with it.

There's a park near the museum with a lotus pond and an interesting sculpture. Pleasant, circuitous paved walks take you through a thick copse of gum trees, alive with bird song.

Also near the museum is a huge propeller from one of the first wind turbines erected in the area as a research facility near Salmon Beach. There's an overlook platform you can climb up to give you a first hand idea of how huge the props are, not to mention a good view of the harbor.

This area is known for its wildflowers in Spring, but since it's autumn, there's not much in bloom. I spotted a yellow daisy-like flower that at long range I passed off as a dandelion, then did a second take when I saw it up close growing along the side of the road near the beach. Subsequently, I saw it growing everywhere. I couldn't identify it, but a local fellow has a great blogsite on Esperance flora and fauna and when I contacted him with the pic, William Archer answered immediately. My mystery flower is a South African weed, gazania linearis, known popularly as a treasure flower. Weed or no, it was a bit of bright color along the roadside.

Here's a bit of Esperance trivia for you … In January 2007, the national media claimed that Esperance experienced "the perfect storm" with wind gusts of up to 110 km/h (70 mph/hurricane force) which brought 155mm (6”) of rain in a 24-hour period, causing significant flooding (and the loss of the pink from Pink Lake). It wreaked havoc in the area, destroying homes, boats, livestock and part of the bridge which connects Esperance with Perth. We read the article and hoped there was no “perfection” around while we visited.

And I leave you with this trivia tidbit ...Beatles guitarist, George Harrision, used to visit Condinup, a farming region near Esperance. Makes you want to say ... wow!

There's more … when NASA's Skylab fell from the sky in 1979 in a blaze of glory, big chunks of it landed here in Esperance … we're heading to the museum tomorrow to check it out. Come on along!