The weather today was great! Started calm and built to what I imagine is normal Esperance windiness – which is still pretty windy by home standards, but not like it was on Wednesday.

We left for the cruise at 8 – I wasn’t up for hours in advance today as the blog took waaayyy too long to do last night (for no good reason other than I kept procrastinating) so I saw 1am and needed some sleep. Bob and I headed to the top deck of the boat for an expansive view of the seascape. The seas were smaller today with only a 3.5m swell. Even so, Bob was a trouper staying up top with me with the extra swaying that comes with that. The passage to the islands was a bit rough – I really enjoyed it.

We saw Australian and New Zealand sea lions, seals, Cape Barren geese (a goose native to southern Australia), and a number of sea eagles that grabbed fish from the water (thrown in by the boat) and then were hassled by seagulls to try and make them drop it. There were also the mesmorising seas bashing the island shores. I just loved it! Way too many photos incoming. Sorry.

We headed in to a sheltered bay (Blue Haven Beach) where floats were deployed and those interested in swimming in the most aqua water I’ve literally ever seen went in. Then the swimmers were brought in and we started our return. We motored past a large beacon with a siren wailing adjacent to where we had stopped for swimming. The captain was up top next to us and he explained a tagged bronze whaler and white pointer had been identified within a few hundred metres of the beacon. The boss from the cruise company had rung the captain and advised to get the swimmers out. Not sure what happens when untagged sharks come around to sniff around though…..

We returned to the vans by lunchtime and Bob and I went into organisation mode. First thing was to head back to the French bakery and arrange to get some pies for the return Nullarbor trip for lunches using the car oven. Luckily, they had the ones we wanted cold in the fridge so we didn’t need to order for pickup tomorrow. Of course we had to get a hot one each for lunch today to reconfirm we were indeed getting a quality product 🙂 .

The afternoon was spent prepping for the return leg of the trip. We won’t have power, water, or shops (other than roadhouses) from tomorrow through to the other end of the Nullarbor in another 8 or so days. Water tanks are topped up, freezer defrosted and repacked and washing is all done.

Tonight we headed out with the Scott’s for dinner at the local Thai restaurant for what will likely be our last dinner out together before we part ways Wednesday next week. A lovely end to our short stay in Esperance. We returned to the caravan park and Kieran and I had an impromptu game of table tennis – my first game since the work Xmas party in either 2017 or 2018. It’s a bit like riding a bike in Kieran’s words.

Tomorrow morning Bob and I are heading off early to our next camp at Cape Le Grande. Our booking is guaranteed but the site is not. Hoping to grab a good one for our 4 night stay. The Scott’s will join us there after completing Parkrun and getting groceries back here.