Esperance ~ Days 5-6

FRIDAY December 30th 2011

The weather forecast was for a very warm 38 degrees! So the group as a whole decided to head to Cape Le Grand National Park and visit Lucky Bay. This beach has been voted has having the whitest sand in Australia. The group as a whole also decided to drive their via the beach - yes Esperance beaches are hard enough to take cars onto, even ones that are not 4WD's!! There was quite a large convey of cars that day :)

The trip via beach took around half an hour, with 22km of beach driving. It was awesome being so close to the ocean in a car :)

Upon arrival at Lucky Bay we set up a camp site of sorts and many headed straight for the water. The temperature there did not feel as warm as it had in town. We spent the morning on boogy boards, kayaks, chairs in the water and on the sand, doing puzzles and reading and just generally relaxing and having a good day.

We took along a Webber (barbecue) and enjoyed a yummy lunch of sausages on bread - perfect beach food!

The weather forecast was also for thunderstorms, so we kept an eye out on the sky. We saw dark storm clouds moving in and began to pack up. We got out before the rain hit and since the road route is longer, elected to drive back along the beach. A short while after arriving back at the camp we heard thunder and saw lightning.

We ended the afternoon doing various things and generally relaxing :)

SATURDAY January 1st 2012

In the morning us, Janssens and Kramers headed down to the jetty to do a spot of fishing. Along the way we saw Sammy the Seal who is often spotted near the jetty where the fish are cleaned. The kids thoroughly enjoyed seeing him, but unfortunately we didn't get a photo of him. As for the fishing, Lucas was being horribly naughty, so I took him home early for a sleep while the others kept going. After a few hours, all the kids except 1 had caught a fish.

On this day the elder Vdl's were wanting a day at camp, while the Janssens and Kramers headed out into the town. After our kids woke up, we headed into town as well, and accidentally bumped into the others at the Mini Golf. We unanimously decided to go for a game, which ended up being a not-so-good idea! The three 2 year olds were little so-and-so's and threw many many tantrums. However, we persisted on and enjoyed aspects of the game.

Since it was New Years Eve, we arranged to have devotions all together at 8pm. We met at the Van Delden camp and had a short sermon and singing. It then proceeded to bucket down. Chris headed back to check on the kids and I followed shortly after. Once ensconed in our tent the rain came down even harder and we ended up being stranded with no umbrella. Even though an umbrella was brought to us we elected to stay in the tent and were asleep pretty early!!