#esperancewa

January 2023 - Lucky Bay Brewing, Esperance, Western Australia

After we cooked enough in the sun, we made our way back to the car. On the hike back I saw my first kangaroo in the wild but was too slow with the camera to get a photo or video. So that day alone we saw both an emu and kangaroo in the wild! On the way to Esperance I wanted to stop by Lucky Bay Brewery again for a few last beers to finish off the day and our time in Esperance since this was our last day before making our way back to Perth.

January 2023 - Kennedy Beach, Cape Arid National Park, near Esperance, Western Australia

When we reached the end of the trail we were rewarded with the best beach of the trip!

It was pristine, there was no seaweed, the waves were pretty calm, it was shallow so you could walk pretty far out, there was a nice clean rock to lay out and put our stuff on, and even a little pool of water next to the rock filled with ice cold Antarctic water we used to keep our non-alcoholic beers cold! I think we even found a rock completely full of abalone in the wild just chillin there!

Best part is we had it all to ourselves! Since we found our beach we hung out for a while and enjoyed our packed sandwiches and cold non-alcoholic beers!

I've been missing Australia since I got back 6 months ago but with this heat wave I'm really wishing I was back in Australia right now!

📸 Susanna Tan (my cousin/IG photographer/travel buddy/twin!)

For the full experience (no login required if viewed on a web browser - just click the links!):

Public Facebook reel: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1433406507436530/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

January 2023 - Tagon Bay, Cape Arid National Park, near Esperance, Western Australia

We grew a bit restless after hanging out in Yokinup Bay so we decided to check out the Tagon Coastal Trail and see the other beaches. It was fun except for when we had to walk along tagon bay which was a long 1km stretch where it was all beach and felt like forever!

We first stopped at Dolphin Cove but weren't really feeling it since there was nowhere to hang up the hammock so we dropped the hammock back in the car and decided to head to the end of the trail and then hang out at the beach we liked the most on the way back (spoiler alert: kennedy beach at the end was our fav which I'll be posting about next!)

We came across a rocky area on the way that was fun watching the waves crash and seeing the different colors of water from the algae on the rocks!

📸 Susanna Tan (my cousin/IG photographer/travel buddy/twin!)

For the full experience (no login required if viewed on a web browser - just click the links!):

Public Facebook reel: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1433406507436530/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

January 2023 - Yokinup Bay, Cape Arid National Park, near Esperance, Western Australia

The next day we were on the fence on whether we wanted to go to Cape Arid National Park. After doing some research it was very remote - almost a 2 hour drive each way and involved some beach driving as well and looking on google maps looked like it could be sketchy. The trailhead to Mount Arid required driving like 20 miles of beach!

I'm so glad we ultimately decided to at least check it out because we saw our first and only emu in the wild and were pretty much the only ones in a 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) stretch of beach for most of the time so it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves! We were able to get away without too much beach driving and didn't get bogged!

We started at Yokinup bay. We took a bit of a chance and drove onto the beach after scoping it out first and made it out ok! 

When I left Penang, my aunt gave me shrimp chips that I had been carrying around with me that somehow remained intact so we finished them on the beach! It was so chill and we didn't want to go but we wanted to check out the other beaches and glad we did! The beach there was nice and thought it was our favorite beach lol until we went beach hopping and found our beach which I'll post about next!

📸 Susanna Tan (my cousin/IG photographer/travel buddy/twin!)

For the full experience (no login required if viewed on a web browser - just click the links!):

Public Facebook reel: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1433406507436530/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

January 2023 - Hellfire Bay to Le Grand Beach, Cape Le Grand National Park, Esperance, Western Australia

The last hike was rough since I was overconfident in my ability to hike without drinking much water. As I started feeling dehydrated, almost right on cue, clouds rolled in and gave us the relief we needed since it was super hot and we were pretty much exposed to the sun the entire time. I didn’t think to fill up my water bottle so I only had half a bottle to begin with. Lesson learned!

We started off with a jog on the beach at Hellfire Bay. When we got to the start of the trail over to Le Grand Beach, it was a very steep climb up and thinking about coming back down was unsettling since one wrong step and I’m sliding all the way down. It seemed steeper than Frenchman Peak but beautiful view of Hellfire Bay! Luckily the rain held out until we got back to Hellfire Bay otherwise those rocks would have been super sketchy to traverse down!

The hike towards Le Grand beach wasn’t as scenic as the hikes earlier in the day and it was also pretty challenging since we had to hike an an angle in many spots so it was rough on the ankles, it was not well marked at some spots so we had to find the cairns, and I was struggling with dehydration so didn’t take so many pictures in between lol. Also Susanna Tan and I had some great very deep conversations too. We found a nice spot on the rocks to enjoy our sandwiches and heineken zeros!

When we got back to Hellfire Bay, we cooled off in the water for a few minutes just before it started to rain and I also realized that someone mentioned the squeaky sand which I finally noticed haha. But the timing worked since we got back to the car just as it started to rain harder.

It was a longer 7.5 mile (12.15 kilometer) round trip hike with 1,095.8 feet (334 meter) elevation gain so it was the most strenuous hike of the 3, but a solid hike to end a solid day. We drove down to the end of the at Rossitier Bay which wasn’t really much to see and stopped by Lucky Bay again to see if maybe the Kangaroos might be out since it was around sunset but no luck. So we called it a day and headed over to Lucky Bay Brewing to end the night!

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Back to posting from my January 2023 Malaysia/Australia Trip!

January 2023 - Thistle Cove to Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand National Park, Esperance, Western Australia

Our next stop in Cape Le Grand National Park after Frenchman Peak was one I had been excited to check out which is Lucky Bay where supposedly you could find kangaroos hanging out by the beach.

Unfortunately we didn't see any kangaroos, but we still had a nice scenic coastal trail run starting at Thistle Cove over to Lucky Bay and then back. It was a pretty short and flat 1.2 mile (2 kilometer) trail run with only 570.9 feet (174 meter) elevation gain.

We ran into another family (no pun intended!) and chatted a bit since they too were disappointed that they didn't see any kangaroos. We ran into them again as we turned around at Lucky Bay and then ran into them a third time when we got back to Thistle Cove lol. And when we were at Lucky Bay Brewing, when we ran into the first family who jokingly thought we found an elevator at Frenchman Peak, the two families happened to be friends!

📸 Susanna Tan (my cousin, twin sister, and road trip buddy!)

For the full experience (no login required if viewed on a web browser - just click the links!):

Public Facebook reel: https://www.facebook.com/reel/215387678113964

January 2023 - Frenchman Peak, Cape Le Grand National Park, Esperance, Western Australia

Our first stop when we got to Cape Le Grand National Park was Frenchman Peak, which was a super fun hike with some scrambling and beautiful panoramic views of the whole area once we got up to the top.

It was a short but steep 1.2 mile (2 kilometer) total out and back hike with 570.9 feet (174 meter) elevation gain so slightly shorter in distance but higher in elevation than East Mount Barren.

We figured since we wanted to try and see as much as we could that day we'd start off with a jog up until we started climbing and instead of following the switchback path we just headed straight to the top.

There was a family in the parking lot that we chatted with as we started the hike that we ended up running into again later at Lucky Bay Brewing who joked that they thought we found an elevator cuz when they turned around we were already at the top haha.

📸 Susanna Tan (my cousin, twin sister, and road trip buddy!)

For the full experience (no login required if viewed on a web browser - just click the links!):

Public Facebook reel: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1965451313792284

January 2023 - Cape Le Grand National Park, Esperance, Western Australia

After 3 full days on the road my cousin Susanna Tan and I finally made it to Esperance where we'd spend the next two full days before starting to make our way back to Perth.

Our first full day at Esperance was a long one! We got super lucky with the weather - it was beautiful right up until we were back on the beach finishing up our last hike of the day when it started raining.

We did 3 solid hikes with some trail running for a total of 11.6 miles (18.65 kilometers) and a total elevation gain of 1,984.9 feet (605 meters).