On Friday, February 20th we arrived in Esperance, where we spent five nights in a vacation home in town. Esperance is home to some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen! Endless white sands, water every colour of blue that you can imagine and plenty of rocks to climb on. We visited many beaches and enjoyed every one.

Once we had settled into the rental house, we hoped in the car and headed to Wiley Bay for the sunset. It wasn’t the clearest sunset, but still so beautiful. It felt great to climb, run and move our bodies after so many days in the car. The salt air and wind in our hair also felt amazing!

On Saturday the 21st, we had to start the day with some schoolwork since we’ve missed so many days during this long road trip. In the afternoon, some of us walked down to the “downtown” area for an ice cream, some playtime at the playground and a walk along the pier where we got to see a very happy seal swimming and playing. A nice, relaxing afternoon!

On Sunday we took the day off from school and work and drove about an hour to Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grande National Park. As we drove in, Steffen spotted a few emus hanging out by the side of the road. So exciting! From there we continued driving toward to beach at Lucky Bay.

Lucky Bay beach apparently has a resident population of kangaroos but we unfortunately did not spot any. But we had a great time swimming, climbing and relaxing in the sun. The photos do not do it justice! We need a drone. LOL

From there we drove to Hellfire Bay for a quick stop before heading back to town. On our way back, I spotted a kangaroo laying in the grass! It was our first wild kangaroo since the golf course ones at the very beginning of our road trip, so it was very exciting. We watched him/her for a bit but could not get a good photo. Then it was back to town for dinner.

On Monday, it was back to work! My job as a teacher that day was a bit rough, so I took a break and walked down to the beach while the others continued working in the library. Esperance has a lovely walking path along the water with a swimming area in the ocean that’s roped off, even with lanes for those that want to swim lanes! There is also a picturesque jetty at one end.

Then, that afternoon, the girls and I went to check out a beach close to town. We had heard that Blue haven beach was especially spectacular but the waves were big and it was too windy, so we continued on to Twilight Cove which was a bit more protected. The girls played in the water and explored a bit. Then we drove the Great Ocean Drive, stopping at the Observatory Point for a beautiful lookout before heading home.

On Wednesday, February 25th, we left Esperance and headed to Albany where we spent two nights in Middleton Beach, a suburb just outside Albany. As we approached the outskirts of the city, we came across many, many, many kangaroos! It was so exciting. Since then we have seen hundreds. I don’t know if it is the area we are currently in or the fact that we are driving closer to dusk now (we made sure to arrive early at our overnight spots when driving the Nullabor), but it’s been amazing! Here is a little video clip.

The area was nice and the little townhouse would have been good but there was a terrible smell that we could not identify/get rid of. The maintenance man tried to fix it, but to no avail. We did get a bit of a refund, so that was nice. But the two days in there were pretty uncomfortable.

There is a wonderful walking path along the water that I took advantage of one morning for a run. It was glorious! The weather was a bit overcast and windy while we were there, so we couldn’t take advantage of the nice beach. The girls and I ended up going bowling one afternoon which was really fun! We hadn’t been bowling since we left Germany, and it’s always nice to do something different.

The next morning we took off for our final destination before Perth, Margaret River, where we will spend a week relaxing.