DAY 134 –GREAT OCEAN SCENIC DRIVE & STONEHENGE – ESPERANCE….

Another full day of sightseeing in Esperance again today…. 

 We started the day with a lovely leisurely breakfast down on the esplanade.

It was a nice surprise for me, as Steve was up packed up our picnic bag with bacon and eggs and we headed down to the BBQ's near Tanker Jetty.  Lots of people stopped to say hi as they were going for their morning stroll.  It was such a gorgeous morning....

Hidden Treasure

 We then went for a little walk around and found some hidden treasure and a few other surprises that we had missed the following afternoon when we were down here photographing the jetty.

We were back at our van by 9am to get ready for our big day of exploring Esperance.

Ian and Kathy left a little before us as they wanted to explore the esplanade area of Esperance, we had already done that the previous evening.   

Anzac Memorial in Esperance

We decided to go for a drive through town so that I could take a few photos and then drive back up to the Rotary Lookout and wait for them there as Steve wanted to do a short walk up there.  It was stunning.  The views over West Beach was  amazing.  

 Ian and Kathy met us up there and then it was off to do the Great Ocean Drive today…. Imagine 38 kilometres of breathtaking coastal imagery.

Great Ocean Drive - Esperance

 This  circular loop captures some of Western Australia’s most spectacular views.  Separating each fascinating landmark are captivating views of the coastal scenery; where snow-white sand meets the sapphire blue body of the ocean. Although this road is much shorter that Great Ocean Road in Victoria, it has sheltered, pristine beaches with their crystal clear waters and snow-white sands, beautiful lookouts and lots of places to sit down and relax by doing nothing.

  Perhaps my favourite beach is this next one..... Twilight Beach

We saw pods of dolphins swimming around these rocks here..

Stunning beach

We never did get down onto this beach.... the carpark was packed with cars....

 It seemed to us not a hard task, as the Drive itself is just 38kms long. Well, now you know that you have to remember to add sometime to stop the car at every lookout / beach, take some photos, relax for a little bit and then move forward to the next stop.  For about 20kms of this drive you are next to the coast, whilst the last 18kms you meander around and through farmlands.   

Pretty disappointed as this was as pink as this lake got... Good thing we got to see the pink lake in Port Gregory....

The only attraction in this part of the drive to stop at is the Pink Lake, which unfortunately was a big disappointment after Port Gregory Pink Lakes as this one was not pink at all.  We tried very hard to find a little bit of pink colour in it with no success…

We stopped at every lookout which was marked on our map and every stop was like this: “Wow, look at this! It is soooo beautiful, stunning in fact!”.

Twilight Beach was a highlight! Different rock formations, white sand and stunning views - absolutely love the Drive!

As for wind farm, we didn’t stop there, as we’ve already seen a lot of wind farms in other places (e.g. near Portland in Victoria).

It was definitely worth the drive and one I would recommend to anyone coming to Esperance.

 

As much as I hate to admit this, considering we have stunning beaches in Queensland, these beaches in Esperance would have to be some of the best beaches in the country.

 Ian and Kathy were feeling quite tired by the time we finished our scenic drive so they decided to head back to the van, whilst Steve and I continued to explore Esperance. 

Model of the Stonehenge at Esperance

We decided to head out along the road to Cape Le Grand National Park again and check out Stonehenge.  We had driven past it the previous day on our way to Lucky Bay.

Esperance has a  full size replica of the original Stonehenge in the UK, as it would have looked around 1950BC.

The owners of the Esperance Stonehenge never intended to have 2,500 tonnes of stone in a paddock behind their house. The replica was originally quarried for a millionaire in Margaret River, however when that project hit financial difficulties, the quarry started looking for a new buyer for the Stonehenge pieces and Kim Beale began to look at ways to build it in Esperance. The original idea was for the council to build it on public land, but after fierce local opposition, the Beales decided to take over the project themselves.

The Esperance monument used 1,200 cubic metres of Desert Brown granite in the 137 granite standing stones. The largest stones are 7 metres high and weigh around 58 tons.

Esperance Stonehenge  has been constructed on the South Coast of Western Australia. While there are thought to be 66 large, permanent replicas of Stonehenge throughout the world, the Esperance project is believed to be the only life size stone one.

 The structure is aligned with the Summer Solstice – Sunrise – Esperance WA. The Station Stones are positioned on this line to allow the suns rays to pass through to the Altar. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year (22nd December). The sunset on the Winter Solstice is (June 21st – the shortest day of the year). This is the same line as the Summer Solstice Sunrise.

 We wandered around it for an hour or so, marveling at the size of these massive granite rocks.  Steve was kicking himself that he didn’t have his drone in the car, as he would have been able to fly it here and could have got some amazing aerial shots.  Lesson to be learnt…. Leave the drone in the car, not back at the van.

 On our way home we fueled up ready for our trip to Kalgoorlie tomorrow, dropped in to the IGA and stocked up on some bread and milk, and then it was back to the caravan park to start the pack for new adventures in the morning…..