Exploring the Duke

Little Wharton

A school mate of mine who now lives in Port Hedland came to visit and in the week she was here we sure filled the time!

We drove out to Duke of Orleans Bay which is about an hour out of town. Duke of Orleans is a wide bay with the caravan park on one end and Table Top Island on the other. The island is still connected to the mainland and it is cool to stand in the middle with the ocean on either side of you.

While we were out there we checked out Wharton Beach where we swam. It has pretty dangerous surf, but there is one end that is a more protected. The day started overcast, but it cleared up by the time we went for a swim. We also explored Little Wharton where there is a small beach with rockpools down one end where we climbed over boulders to explore the pools. Round that the side the rock had an amazing tiger pattern!

A very cool rock at Little Wharton

As you do with a tourist, you drive the Tourist loop and check out all the beaches! The drive takes about an hour if you get out and have a quick swim at each spot and we finally swam at 11 Mile which is the last beach along the loop without going along the beach.

We had an early start to climb Frenchman’s Peak. It wasn’t busy when we went up, there were a few other people going up at the same time as us, but it was packed going down. There were cars lining the whole road up to the car park which was also full! The climb took us just over an hour at a leisurely pace with a few photo stops, but it is steep and not for the light-hearted. We were glad to do it first up!

Looking out towards Cape Le Grand from Frenchman's Peak

After our climb, we rewarded ourselves with a coffee at Lucky Bay which was a little windy and unfortunately we didn’t see any kangaroos. We decided to have a swim at Thistle Cove which is more protected and isn’t as popular because you have to climb over a big rock to get onto the beach. We checked out Hellfire too which was packed, it is also more sheltered by the wing and has nice toilets and a BBQ area.

One the last day we hung out at Blue Haven, where the stair climb was a bit treacherous on our sore legs! The water was gorgeous and it was nice to chill out.

In the time my mate was here we ate plenty of good food and drank lots of cocktails! I’ll eventually make it up her way!

Hellfire Bay

Christmas and Camping

I had a very quick trip to Perth for Christmas. I drove up with my housemate and was there pretty much for Christmas Day! We did our usual family thing on Christmas morning opening presents under the tree and throwing paper for the dog to catch. Then we had brekky with Dad’s side of the family- this was a new thing for us. We had a lovely breakfast and did a Secret Santa which was fun. In the evening we had dinner at our house with Mum’s side of the family. My favourite part about Christmas is everyone being together…and the ham!

Family Cuppa

On Boxing Day Mum, Dad and I drove to Munglinup Beach where we camped for a few days. Dad always goes all out with the camping stuff and he even bought solar panels because we had an unpowered site! We went for a long paddle along the Munglinup river, to the river mouth on one day and up the river on another.

Our Fancy Camping Breakfast

Munglinup River

We took a day trip to Stokes National Park and visited Moir Homestead. This was an old set of buildings from the 1870s. There were so many bees there and I’ve never seen such a big beehive! While we were at Stokes we settled in and spent the afternoon at Fanny Cove. We went for a swim and watched a seal have a splash! It is a really nice spot and I’d like to camp there.

The Residents at Moir Homestead

Fanny Cove

Once in Esperance with Mum and Dad we went for a drive and checked out all the beaches along the Tourist Loop. We were lucky enough to get a parking spot at Blue Haven which was very busy and we had a swim. We visited Lucky Bay Brewing and had a few tasters and I was glad to show off our local brewery to Mum and Dad.

Blue Haven

I had a pretty quiet New Years. We watched the fireworks and the foreshore and went to the pub. It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I’m glad to have a bit longer off work to chill.

The Foreshore Fireworks