Esperance, beautiful but a little wind-less

After the Margaret River event, Graham, Stef and I decided to drive to Esperance on what was a slightly dodgy forecast, hopeful for three days windsurfing. It was forecast cloudy with a little rain, then to be sunny and windy. We drove via Albany and Denmark and via the Tree Top Walk which was cool:

We also went past green pool, having a cool swim. I'm not sure what Stef is looking in the bush for?!

Our lay-by camping spot turned out to be a scorpion and ant breeding ground, so we had to be pretty careful about stuff on the floor and check everything! The scorpions were small, the nice poisonous kind, and I have never seen so many ants, some up to an inch long! Graham enjoyed tramping round in the morning trying to find us a bull ants nest! (We found one later on at Esperance)

Then we got to Esperance, 8 hours later! It was overcast for pretty much the whole 3 days we were there which was a shame as we didn't get to see the turquoise water shining in the sunlight. It was still beautiful though, but much colder than the North!

We entered the Cape Le Grand National Park, which was amazing, and stayed a night at Lucky Beach, where the kangaroos seemed to have got used to the humans and enjoyed our apples!

The next morning we climbed Frenchman's peak (even Stef too to his pain!). It used to be submerged in water when the sea level was 250m higher, so a cave was formed at the top. Really amazing to see and a great (cloudy) view from the top!

Not the Wave Rock at Hyden, but another 'Shipstern's Bluff' like rock...

After checking the beach one last time and realising again it was an annoying 10-12 knot onshore wind, we cut our losses and decided to drive all the way back to Geraldton for a windy last 3 days of the trip. Another nice 12 hour drive. When we stopped for the night Felix from Esperance said the wind came in a little when we left and he had a nice sail, damn! We had a windscreen chip on the way from a rock from a lorry so had to get that fixed on the way up, but made it back to Geraldton. Long roads...funny how you get used to driving here!

Finally, a few more pictures from the Margaret river event, from Phil Cutter and Neng at Seabreeze.com forum. You can see the keyhole which you launch through, and I unfortunately lost a fin to on my way out for the woman's heat. (I pushed it back in for the heat but it was badly damaged).