The Goldfields

Before heading back east we wanted to see Nathan again, so we planned for a couple of nights at Kambalda, where he is working. On our way north we noticed these lakes either side of the road, just to the south of Salmon Gums. There was enough room to pull over a couple of hundred metres up the road, so we walked back for photos. 

We walked around the block in Salmon Gums, where we stopped for lunch.

Lake Lefroy from Red Hill Lookout in Kambalda.

A close-up of Nathan's drilling rig, which is in the distance in the pano above.

Since we were only 40 minutes from Kalgoorlie we decided to drive up and see the Super Pit again. It was a lot bigger than we remembered it, and the lookout has been moved back as the mine has expanded.

The view in 2016.

A photo looking the same direction now, but from further back. Unfortunately it was late in the day and the shadows had come across the section we could see more clearly last time.

And here's the whole pano of the mine now.

Tunnels going into the wall at the back of the section in shadow.

Land Cruiser utes are the little guys here!

From the lookout in Norseman.

The wildflowers here are gazanias - a weed!

Yellow-plumed Honeyeater

Esperance and Cape Le Grand

The afternoon of the day we arrived in Esperance was mostly sunny, and as the following day was forecast to be overcast and showers, we drove around the beaches to the east to make the most of the beautiful weather.

West Beach

Salmon Beach

Twilight Beach

Observatory Point

Back in Esperance we walked along the jetty as the sun went down.

The overcast/showery day was a good excuse to have a bit of a rest, catch up on photos and make the most of being on power in a caravan park to cook some extra meals for the freezer. Dazz ventured out to the beach for a walk in the afternoon.

Although the next day was forecast to be mostly sunny it was only sunny to the east. It was still quite threatening to the west, but we drove out to Cape Le Grand National Park anyway, hoping it would clear.

Le Grand Beach

Hellfire Bay

We weren't planning to walk up Frenchman Peak, but it did have an allure to it!

Thistle Cove

Whistling Rock - it really did "whistle" as it bounced the sound of the waves around!

There were beautiful lichens around the rocks.

Lucky Bay

Sunset in Esperance

After some discussion about what we would do on our last day in Esperance, which was forecast to be sunny, we decided it was worth driving back out to the national park to try to get some nicer photos (particularly at Lucky Bay), and the draw of Frenchman Peak to overlook the bays and islands was too hard to resist!

We walked right past this little guy, but a family with a couple of kids spotted it. The mother was doing her best to stay calm! Dazz was hoping it would pull a lizard out from under the rock, but it came out empty mouthed.

The photos really don't capture how steep the climb was in parts, and it was straight up the granite of the rock for most of it.

Dazz stopped at the first overhang to take panos.

I continued to the top, which required a bit more scrambling. It was really windy!

This is the cave that we could see through on the previous day. (If you look carefully on the photo after Hellfire Bay you can see it.)

Our return visit to Lucky Bay had much better light. We enjoyed a long walk on the beach and then went up to the road we'd discovered the day before for a pano of the whole bay.

This was Dazz's favourite photo. He just happened to be doing a pano with his phone when the surfer stood up!

Since the cloud had cleared and it was such a beautiful day we went back to Hellfire Bay and did the Little Hellfire Bay walk. Hellfire Bay was packed with people because it was lovely and sunny.

But there were only two other people who walked the 20 minutes to Little Hellfire Bay.

Full moon in Esperance that night.