Australia here we come!

4/9/12

We left the rest area and drove to Esperence and arrived about 10.30am. We visited the Visitor Information Centre and the girls chose the Pink Lake Caravan Park for us to stay in. While the girls were booking us into the caravan park I found a business card for a mobile caravan wheel bearing servicer. Karen called the number and Allan arrived at 12midday. He repacked both caravans' wheel bearings and greased the shackles. He also found both caravans had an electric brake wire broken which he fixed. Just after Allan had finished at about 3.15pm it started to rain heavily. We decided to stay put for the rest of the day, due to the weather and just relax.

5/9/12

It rained all night and the wind blew all night as well. In the morning it was overcast but windy. We decided to do the Great Ocean Drive. On the way we saw the Tanker Jetty and Esperance Harbour. Our first stop was the Rotary Lookout. We went on a 1 kilometre walking trail which had wonderful views of the Southern Ocean.

We continued on and stopped at West Beach, Blue Haven, Salmon Beach and Fourth Beach. At Fourth Beach we saw our first close up whale just basking in the water beyond the breakers. It took a while to drag Mary-Anne away from the whale so we could drive onto Twilight Beach and, bugger me, we could see the same whale from there too! It was on again when we had to leave and I was getting tired from wrestling my big sister into the car.

We stopped at Picnic Beach and Observatory Point. We climbed up the hundreds of steps at Observatory Point to the lookout. We had to hold on tight to stop the wind from blowing us out into the Southern Ocean. On the way back down it started to misty rain. That was fine but the wind turned the misty rain into stinging missiles that penetrated the skin. It was a relief to get back into the car. Next we saw Nine Mile Beach, Observatory Beach, Ten Mile Lagoon and on the way home saw the Pink Lake. I was surprised to hear the girls saying it wasn't pink. I thought it was just my eyes that didn't pick up the pinkness.

We had lunch at the Old Tanker Jetty before walking out along it. It was a day of surprises for us. There was a large sea lion laying on the sand at the start of the jetty. We thought it was a statue until it started rolling over. It was big and fat and our first seal for the trip. Again Mary-Anne's hands had to be crowbarred from the railing so we could walk along the jetty. It was a cool and windy walk but worth the effort.

After the Jetty we went to the Museum Park Period Village next to the Information Centre. We walked through the village of restored original old homes that have been turned into shops selling all manner of touristy things. Then we drove along the Esplanade to Quays Beach before going to the Mermaid Leather Factory. Here they tan leather from fish skins. We sat through a number of videos that explained the history of the factory and explained how fish skins can be tanned. It is surprising how leathery a fish skin can feel when tanned properly.

From the Fish skin factory we returned to the caravan park and the girls paid for another night.