The Land Down Under – Part 2

The other famous pink lake is in Esperance and the name of that one is actually Pink Lake. But the colour of the lake in the city itself is not pink anymore and for the last 30 years it’s actually been white. It was the third pink lake I saw from the plane when flying over Esperance. So there are many of them everywhere.

When driving to see Pink Lake in town (the one I told you is actually of white colour), you can stop by in the new brewery. The name of the brewery is the same as the beach I was telling you about in my first article, the Lucky Bay Beach. Well, the brewery opened using the same name. When I visited it in October last year, it was still in the old location, but now it has moved to Bandy Creek 6450 (63 Bandy Creek Road). You can also find it on Instagram under luckybaybrewing. It also sells food like pizza, smoked treats (chicken, pork, sausages) and some snacks. In the photo below you can see me tasting some beer with my friend Paul from Australia. I have forgotten which one is my favourite, so I’ll just have to go back and try them again.

Esperance is quite a modern town and also has beautiful beaches. The famous family beach is called Twilight Beach. I could have stay there much longer, but unfortunatelly I had to go on with my trip since the three days I spent there were running out. My next flight was towards the sea again, where I could go snorkelling. There is a great barrier reef in Western Australia, called Ningaloo reef. It is a World heritage site located in the northwest coastal region and covers 705,015 hectares, so it’s a really big area which stretches from Coral Bay to Exmouth. Both towns are delightful so you can choose one or the other. I have chosen both. First, I made a four-day stop in Coral Bay. This is actually a small village near the sea, with a big caravan park, a big hostel with a swimming pool, which you actually don’t need but it is nice to see that a hostel offers something more. You can also find more expensive hotels, plenty of restaurants to eat, a bakery just near the hostel and a shop. If you need to buy snorkelling gear, in case you forgot yours at home like I did, you can also do that here.

What is spectacular in Coral Bay is that you can come to the beach, put your snorkelling mask on and, after just a few meters, you can already see sea turtles or reef sharks further in the sea. If you just walk near the beach, you can spot small stingrays swimming near you. It is such a beautiful place. Everybody knows that the Great Barrier Reef in the eastern part of Australia exists, but not a lot of people know about Ningaloo. Ningaloo is so much better, especially because you can swim straight from the shore, so no boats needed. Well, you’d actually need a boat if you wanted to see the big animals, like whale sharks. But to see turtles, stingrays and reef sharks, that’s very easy. And no crocodiles or jellyfish. It is completely safe to swim there. A ten-minute walk from the main beach on the left side there is Skeleton Bay, where baby sharks are born.

Near Exmouth, beaches are as spectacular as those in Coral Bay, especially Osprey Bay Beach. Just beautiful. But enough about sea for now. Let us check some native Australian animals. In Exmouth, for instance, emus walk on the streets, with lot’s of confidence as you would expect from an emu. They are literally everyhwere and when driving you have to be quite careful. Maybe one of the important things for international travellers to keep in mind is that you have to drive really slowly in Australia since the speed limit is really low. Sometimes I felt I could run next to the car, that is how slowly they drive. Another very important thing when driving is that you should always keep the seatbelt on. There are large fines if you disobey any of these rules.

When my visit to Exmouth was over, on the way back to Perth I visited the other two national parks. One with native animals (I hadn’t seen a koala yet) and the other national park with stunning rock formations. The pinnacles desert is one of a kind. There are so many rocks there that you can drive for at least two hours in the park taking pictures.

Yanchep National Park has many koalas, kangaroos and plenty of birds. Of course you can’t end your Australian trip without seeing a koala, which is my favourite bear in the world. Sorry panda, but this one is just way cuter.

I’m planning on coming back to Esperance and Lucky Bay when crossing the Nullarbor Plain, where I’d like to stay for at least two nights. There are excellent camp facilities in the park. And this time I hope I can make a selfie with a kangaroo on the beach.

I probably won’t take the Hillier flight again, since it was really expensive and cost 385 dollars, which is why it’s called once-in-a-lifetime experience. But it was definitely worth every dollar!!

Some useful tips:

• drive slowly and always use the seatbelt; there are large fines if you disobey the rules;
• don’t drive at night as kangaroos will jumpo straight in front of the car;
• don’t feed kangaroos or any other animals;
• tap water is safe and you can get it everywhere for free, even in restaurants where you’ll be served tap water for free it will even come with some lemon inside;
• even though I’m not 20 anymore, I stayed in hostels; there are many of them that offer private rooms with shared bathrooms, and if you go in low season you can pay around 35 Australian dollars for a room;
• mobile phone signal won’t work throughout most of your trip, but where there will be internet, it will be free.