After a second day of unsuccessful fishing and a rapidly dwindling supply of bait I decide to move west in the hope of chasing the migrating Australian Salmon. The trailer was packed and I headed west to Esperance. This time the gps was ignored and I followed the bitumen.
A – Perth
B – Cape Arid
C – Esperance
D – Boat Harbour
E – Albany
It’s been thirty years since I last visited Esperance and I don’t remember much of the town.
Photos should enlarge if clicked on
The only supplies I required was diesel and I purchased 60 litres at $2.14 a litre <ouch> anticipating that would be sufficient to get me home. As it turned out the fuel was enough and the price the lowest between Esperance and Perth.
I’d examined the map before departing the campsite and decided to relocate to “Boat Harbour” which was shown as a small beach just west of Bremer Bay. I knew Bremer Bay would probably be busy and I would have to pay to camp. I prefer to freedom camp and hoped that would be possible at Boat Harbour.
Another long day of driving to reach Boat Harbour Road with the last five kilometres turning into a teeth chattering goat track of corrugations. In the end I drove on the verge beside the road which was smoother. The last two kilometres was a narrow sand track which had me starting to become concerned about how I might turn the trailer to leave.
Eventually I reached the beach where there were three campsites with two occupied by other camper trailers.
It then started to rain. I decided not to extend the awning or detach the vehicle from the trailer. If the fish weren’t biting it would be an overnight stop.
A battered old Toyota ute arrived being driven by Trevor, the resident hermit. Trevor introduced himself as the unofficial site caretaker and informed me he had been living here off the grid for the last 12 years. He also explained the reason for the poor road condition was the local shire’s claim they didn’t own the road.
Trevor also informed me the salmon were staying well out to sea this year. He hadn’t caught anything to eat and was forced to drink beer to keep himself going!
Dinner was boil in a bag Lamb Shank from Aldi supplemented with tinned potatoes and mixed veg. After a long day of driving I was in the sleeping bag by 7pm.
Next morning I was up at dawn and fishing from the beach. There were numerous bites and my bait was disappearing, but no fish. Breakfast was sausages, bacon and eggs before heading back to the fishing. My bait gradually disappeared and then I got a large bite. I slowly wound in the line to find a large crab hanging onto the remains of my baited hook. Obviously Trevor the Hermit knows what he’s talking about.
That night I decided the fishing was a waste of time and decided to return home via Albany.
The next morning I dropped the air in the tyres down to 18psi in anticipation of driving slowly back up the sand dunes to the corrugated road. The trailer had rocked alarmingly at a couple of the deeper dips on the way in and I wanted to leave at a slower speed minimizing the possibility of an incident. It went better than I had anticipated and at the end of the unsealed road I stopped to pump the tyres back to 30psi before driving to Albany.
From there it was a straight trip back to Perth on the Albany Highway with two rest stops and a refuel where I emptied the 60 litres of diesel purchased in Esperance into the Isuzu. The fuel level was starting to get low by the time I reached Perth and I decided that as my route took me past Costco I might as well refuel before home.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived to find the queue for fuel stretched beyond the entrance to Costco. It was 4:30pm and I had anticipated the place would be empty. It wasn’t until I reached to bowser and saw the price of the fuel that I realised everyone was taking advantage of the relatively cheap rate.
A waste of a fishing trip but I did get to see more of the southern part of Western Australia.
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