Esperance

Ahhhh, lush green grass!  How lovely.  We decided in the end to stay in a caravan park in Esperance, following the very unhelpful visit to the tourist information centre regarding the local national park.  We were not too disappointed though, as this meant celebrating my birthday in style.  (By style, I mean having a shower and washing my hair, having running water in our little kitchen, and phone signal… )  So we began celebrations at Dome Café – taking our electronics, as it was the only free WIFI in the area – and settled in for a big breaky.  It didn’t disappoint.  The hardest part was watching Sam looking tortured as he tried to choose whether to have pancakes or croissants for breakfast.  We ended up putting him out of his misery by promising a big round of croissants for tomorrows’ breakfast – seeing as though the camp kitchen had an oven.  A smile returned to his face, as he realised his torment was now worth it all. 

Esperance itself seems to be a lovely place to holiday.  Beautiful beaches, good retail and crispy hot chips from the take away shop!  What more could you want?

An afternoon stroll through a local art gallery was a good choice by Ben.  We chatted to people while they were doing pottery, and gazed at an exhibition by artist Jimmy Pike.  Sam felt quite inspired, and took to creating his own postcards once we were home – we were hugely proud of his efforts and end result, and plan to post it onto WA UNI to go on their postcard wall exhibition.

Ben enjoyed happy hour with our new neighbour, John, who at 81yrs was travelling solo on a bus.  What a guy.  Turns out he is from Lake Macquarie.  As for me, I had a new book to settle into – a new John Grisham.  Ben threatens that he will never buy me a book again for my birthday, as nothing seems to get done once I’ve picked it up.  Sam, Nick and Larina spent days being amused by their new best friends – 2 slightly older boys who hung around each afternoon after school to push them on the swings, play UNO games.  At one stage I saw Larina bossing them around, and convincing them to enter her tiny cubby house under the table.  It did occur to me that she spends an awful lot of time with older boys, and I wonder if this might cause us worry in years to come…    anyway, these new friends were magic, and we appreciated their kindness.  It was fitting to celebrate our last night together with the only way possible – a good game of spotlight around the toilet facilities.