We started Wednesday by attending the ANZAC Dawn Service at Eucla. Surprisingly there were about 50 people there, a mix of travellers and locals. It was a simple and heartfelt ceremony which had strange parallels to the one we attended at Gallipoli two years ago as the sun slowly rose over the ocean behind the memorial.
Before heading off on a 700 klms epic drive to Norseman we drove down to the site of the old telegraph station. The original settlement of Eucla was close to the beach and subject to winds from the southern ocean shifting the fine white sands - to the extent where the telegraph station was reclaimed by the sand and the settlement of Eucla was shifted up onto a high ridge.
There is little to see between Eucla and Norseman except the longest, straight stretch of road in the country between Caiguna and Balladonia and some Skylab space junk at Balladonia. To be fair there are a few other places that can be accessed by 4WD only.
We stayed at Norseman for the night and spent 15 minutes touring the town before heading off to Esperance, one of the highlights of our trip so far. We arrived at Esperance at lunchtime and after a quick restock of fresh fruit and vegetables we headed off on the Great Ocean Drive. The pictures on this blog tell part of the story of the Great Ocean Drive but they can't do it justice. You have to see it for yourselves.
Following the ocean drive we travelled 63 klms to Cape Le Grand, a fantastic national park which we wished we had more time to explore. There are great bitumen roads to the highlights in the park and once again the aquamarine waters on white sandy beaches featured. There are also camping grounds in this national park if you wanted to spend more time exploring.
On Friday we took a morning boat trip through the Recherche Archipelago spotting Australian sea lions, NZ fur seals, white breasted sea eagles and Cape Barren geese on islands and rocky outcrops before making landfall on Woody Island for morning tea and a short bushwalk. On our return to Esperance, we spent the afternoon wandering around the town before walking back to the caravan park. We really want to stress how beautiful Esperance is and you could easily spend a week exploring the region.
Saturday was notable for nothing much except for a big drive from Esperance to Caiguna for an overnight stop before heading back to Eucla.
A friend of Barbara's had mentioned that it was worthwhile to walk on the beach at Eucla. As we arrived early afternoon, we decided would would take the firend's advice. Even Christine agrees it was worhwhile despite the kilometre trek over hard and soft sand dunes, in the blazing sun and shooing flies the whole way.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the Bunda Cliffs as we recross the Nullarbor and head to Penong.
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