Beaches and Stonehenge are two things you must visit when you are in Esperance.
While staying at Cape Le Grand National Park during our 9 day camping trip, we decided to visit Esperance. After filling gas and treating ourselves to local fish and chips, we had plenty of time to do sightseeing that day. First, we visited Stonehenge.
Stonehenge
Esperance Stonehenge is a full-size replica of the original UK Stonehenge and it appears as the UK version would have looked like around 1850BC.
It was built from 137 stones of Esperance pink granite quarried opposite the road where Stonehenge is rested.
Esperance Stonehenge was built to align with both Summer (22nd December) and Winter (21st June) Solstices in Western Australia. If you are lucky to have good weather, the owners actually open the place at 4am in summer to allow visitors experience this phenomenon.
Esperance beaches
The beaches around Esperance are spectacular and easy to access via The Great Ocean Coastal Drive. It is a 40km coastal self-drive route encompassing a number of picturesque lookouts and parking bays.
You probably need a couple of days if you want to explore this area and explore all of the beaches and lookouts (plus Pink Lake and wind farm) along the route. Having only a few hours at our disposable, we decided to visit only the most interesting places. Salmon Beach was the first of the beautiful beaches where we stopped.
Twighlight Beach is probably the most popular family beach located 10km from town centre. It is one of the safest and most beautiful beaches around Esperance.
Twighlight Beach is equipped with picnic facilities, public toilets and also Shark Warning System!
Ten Mile Lagoon is a fantastic swimming beach 19 km from town, particularly for young swimmers. A rocky shore separates a natural shallow and calm lagoon with much warmer waters from the breaking waves of the ocean.
The lagoon is a perfect place not only for swimming, but also for snorkelling and admiring what the ocean shallow floor offers.
Going up the stairs back to the car I was admiring rugged pristine coastline…
Esperance is approximately 720km south east of Perth, on the Southern Ocean coastline in Western Australia.
