Esperance!

We drove the 1300km within 4 days from South Australia to Western Australia, stayed overnight at breathtaking coasts, met German backpackers at two roadhouses, and drove along the longest straight road in Australia. The allocation of food and water worked great, and we even have a little extra left. We are glad when we finally reach the small town of Esperance, located right on the coast and surrounded by beautiful beaches. Unfortunately, there are only paid campsites in Esperance, so we decide to go shopping again for a few days and head towards Cape Le Grand National Park, which is 40km away. There is a free campsite there. However, it is not quite clear from the reviews and information whether the road can only be reached with a 4-wheel drive. Since we don't have a great choice of sleeping places, we set off and see what happens. The first 30km were well drivable, then we got on the gravel road, which was still quite passable (noisy and bumpy, but okay at 20km/h). The road gets worse, and the last 11km there is a road sign stating '4 wheel Drive only' because the ground becomes sandier and softer. Since we have come this far, we want to drive the rest as well. At least we try, even at the risk of having to turn back and drive in the dark. (We have never driven in the dark so far, as kangaroos are very active on the roads.) The road became very adventurous, up and down with deep potholes and sandy jumps. With a 4-wheel drive, it's a fast and great pleasure, with our van it's more like a very slow slalom drive, including a walk to preview the road. Nevertheless, we actually made it! Without a 4-wheel drive! We found a very nice sleeping place right by the sand dunes. After a short walk through the dunes, we were welcomed by a beautiful kilometer-long deserted dream beach. Just like in a picture book. We cook some fried potatoes with fried eggs and go to sleep. In the past few days, we have traveled through time, so there is no longer a 10-hour time difference to Germany, but now only 7 hours, and accordingly, the sunrise and sunset have shifted as well. We wake up before 6 o'clock by the sun and go to sleep at 9 p.m. If only it were like this at home 😀Unfortunately, we don't have any network at our little sweet place, but we pass the time by cooking, playing cards, taking walks on the beach, doing fitness exercises, tidying up/rearranging the van, listening to music, and enjoying the sun 😊 #goodlifeAfter 4 or 5 days (we no longer have a proper sense of time for dates 😄), we head towards Esperance to do some shopping. We camp at a paid campsite with showers and drive to one of the beaches near the city, West Beach. At 37 degrees Celsius, we are very excited about the coolness until we experience an Australian thunderstorm directly above the sea 2 hours later. Many others were also standing next to us in the parking lot to watch the whole thing. The temperature dropped from 37 degrees to 22 degrees within half an hour, just like in Germany. The next day, we drove along the 'Great Ocean Drive' along the coast, passing several direct beach accesses and a salt lake. We almost liked the route better than the Great Ocean Road, but back then it was also raining. The next destination on our list is Lucky Bay Beach, where there are even kangaroos. For this, we set off early again to Cape Le Grand National Park. Unfortunately, the campsites there were fully booked, but we were able to park the van and spend the whole day there. Fortunately, several kangaroos visited us right on the beach. The marsupials are simply too cute!