After Esperance, we decided to venture a little bit more East, before we started the return track back to Perth. All hitched up, we headed to the Duke Of Orleans for a squizz around the area. Beautiful beaches around here. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best, so we headed out and enroute to Membinup beach FREE camp. We got a great spot right next to the shack and spent 2 nights here relaxing.
Some friends of ours, were also in the area & popped by for a night. Thanks Laura for introducing us to ‘Ligretto’ (card game), we are hooked. The Membinup beach itself, was full of seaweed, but we found if you walk 5 minutes to the west, we found a lovely little bay with a great little natural paddling pool. Perfect for families with little ones!
All the the locals in Esperance had told us to go check out Alexander Bay, which was a 30 minute drive up the road. We headed up with the van and agreed we would stay at least one night. The sites were all designated like a campground, with enough privacy not to really see your neighbours. At $15 a night though, we were a little underwhelmed with the beach and campground itself. We did meet another couple from Instagram - Ben & Hayley which was nice. But we weren’t really sold on the campsite itself.
We headed back towards Esperance and found a wicked free camp for the night. It was done a dodgy dirt track (as they’re the best ones). Took a little mucking around to get the van into position but we had panoramic views of surrounding islands. We lit a fire and enjoyed the afternoon views with some sundowners. Well happy with our little side trek, we replenished our fridge and pantry in Esperance & topped up the water tanks🚰, before heading out to Quagi Beach.
Quagi beach was another low cost campsite at $15 per night. We chose to stay here, as we wanted to nip into Stokes National Park for a look. Kurts last name is Stokes and hence why he wanted to see HIS national park. We ducked off in the afternoon and headed in to the park. Note: we did have to deflate our tires, as the road was heavily corrugated. In under 30 minutes we were at the Moir Homestead ruins. Lots of ruins about to see and we loved the paths which helped guide you to the different spots. Without the paths, we would of missed half of the structures and points of interest.
Seeing the sign for ‘Fanny Cove’ had us in giggles. So of course we had to go see Fanny Cove in the National Park. A nice calm bay, which looked like it would be good snorkeling and swimming. The campground had 4 sites, which were empty, but plenty of space to bring a caravan in - if you wished. From here, we nipped out to the ‘Shoal Cape’, another great bay which looked like it would be great for spearfishing. A big rock shelf too, for keen fishermen. Well Kurt was happy with his mini tour, we headed back to the van to relax.
The next day, we headed to Starvation Bay. WOW! We loved this spot. We got ourselves a nice cosy site, only 20m walk to the beach. The bay was protected and calm, and had plenty of spots to explore around here on foot. We stayed 3 nights, relaxing and soaking up the sun. Again, another $15 per night campsite but we were more than happy with this spot.
We moved down to Hopetoun next. The town has a free RV friendly designated campsite for self contained campers. We unhitched the van and had a little walk around town and along the beach. Rusty was pretty tired and in need of her afternoon nap, so while she was napping we ducked into Fitzgerald Nation Park [on the eastern side].
Again, only a short 15 minute drive and we were in the National Park area. We had a look at four mile beach, barrens beach, cave beach, west beach and eventually turning around at Hamersley Inlet. The inlet water level was that low, there were multiply dead fish along the shore, which was sad to see. Anyways, we left there and on the way out of the NP, we threw on our runners and climbed East Mount Barren. A short class 4 walk to the summit, but a good bit of afternoon fitness and spectacular views up top.
Next stop Hyden!