Step 49 Esperance – Hopetoun 237 km's

Saturday 26^th February

Quick stop to see Sammy the sea lion at the tanker jetty before leaving Esperance but unfortunately Sammy had a prior engagement and wasn't there. 

Sammy is that busy these days they have made a statue so people who miss him aren't so disappointed

His mate Tommy the turtle was there but to be honest Tommy has seen better days. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if Tommy is an ex-turtle by now.

The road to Hopetoun via Ravensthorpe was longer, and less entertaining than expected but we did get to drive through the edges of the Fitzgerald Biosphere, my first biosphere I think. On the other hand it looked a lot like a National Park so maybe I've been in a biosphere before and didn't realise it.

The Ravensthorpe brochure writers have obviously attended the “how to oversell your town” writing course but luckily we were only passing through.

Bit of excitement on the Ravey to Hopey road (as we locals call it, the less travelled amongst you would know it as the Ravensthorpe-Hopetoun road). There we were, MM cruising along nicely when a family of emus leapt out of the trees, down an embankment and across the road right in front of us. Glad we had the brakes done before we left Melbourne. Might need to do some underpants washing tomorrow though. Dad emu looked a bit indignant as MM screeched to a halt but seriously I think he was just fed up looking after the kids and was trying to get rid of them.

Hopetoun Beach

The park at Hopetoun is quite nice, very rural, bush setting, slab sites and lots of trees 

but Di is less than impressed with the Ladies amenities block. She has gone so far as to rate them the worst for the trip so far. Good job we are only staying overnight.

The park is well positioned though with a short walk through the dunes to the beach and a short walk along the beach into town. Not quite sure how they survive but the town consists of a Pub, with restaurant, an IGA supermarket and four coffee shops (two with full restaurants). That is the entire town, unless we missed something. Apparently they were going to set up a nickel mine nearby so maybe they geared up for that because it's a long drive from Perth for a coffee.

Four coffee shops, but only one pub