Lucky Bay doesn’t have any ducks that I could see but it does have a spot where the cormorants all hang on a ledge and poo together like shags on a rock (see the photo). It was named by Matty Flinders, whose english fingerprints are all over this southern coast. As Martin Benfield will tell you, he travelled along the bottom of Australia with his trusty cat Trim in the Investigator (a boat, not an alligator in a vest) and named the living daylights out of every spot he stopped at.  From South Australia, we have gone from Flinders monument to Flinders monument. He named Lucky Bay, lucky, because there was a storm pounding him (and Trim) and luckily he found this sweet spot that was a lot less poundy because it was protected by headlands and islands.

We had to drive east from Esperance to get there, which is a little illogical when you’re going around the outside in a clockwise direction, as we are purporting to be doing. But we met some savvy fellow travellers while crossing the Nullabour  who recommended it. So maybe it was luck for us or maybe it was plain old fashioned ‘that sounds good.’ Whatever it was, it turned out to be one of the best decisions we have made so far. Because the two nights we spent there will be amazing memories from now on for a number of reasons.

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The first thing that should be mentioned is that, (according to Brian {the national park volunteer host of the campsite} and Wikipedia), it has the whitest sand in the world. There are other beaches that have claimed this trophy and I have walked along them on this trip, (Huskisson Beach put your hand up) but the sand on this little unassuming, out of the way, little bay on an ’off the route’  part of the coast has those show offy other beaches running to the changing sheds in embarrassment. It has the whitest of white, squeaky sand that has the extra quality of even squeaking when it is wet. Pauline Hanson would be so proud. When we turned the corner down to the coast and first saw it we couldn’t believe the postcard quality of the view.

Our huge win at this spot has been the other girls that Lou has had the chance to play with.  We met other nine year old girl families here and she has been the big winner from that. She had the best time ever swimming and playing with her new friends. This place was recommended to us by Alex and Justin, who we net on the Nullarbor and are headed up the WA coastline. They have a daughter who is Lou’s age and a son who is younger. They had met another family with nine year old girls. We had one very happy little girl. Meeting other families who are travelling has been a real bonus for us. We enjoyed hanging out with Peter and Ange in Tassie and the families here have been so nice to meet too.  Travelling gives you different opportunities to meet people. At home, you rarely pass by strangers on your way to the toilet first thing in the morning. You can’t not give them a nod and say mornin’ in that sort of situation. People are all in the same sort of boat so it is easy to chat about where you’ve been and where you’re going and the …ummmm how should I put it?….. ‘difficulties’ that can present themselves when travelling with children. We actually ran into Justin and Alex at Esperance and the girls had fun at the playground. In Lucky Bay they had a much better chance to hang out. Lou got to hang with them while the rest of us went for a walk along the coast (what a mega bonus for her).

But by far the biggest international stars of Lucky Bay are the (I have tried and tried to think of just the right adjective to put here without success) kangaroos. During our travels we have learned that you see them most often dead on the side of the road.  Sometimes you see them in groups hopping off in the distance. But here they hop up to you, past you, in front you… they don’t really care.  They hop throughout the campground with wild but mild mannered abandon. You go for a walk and you’ll find a few on the edge of the path, happy for a pat … or not. Can you imagine how Tim an Lou felt about having the chance to pat a wild kangaroo? 

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We did a walk along the coast to Thistle Cove one day and got to see a tiger snake and some interesting lizards on the way. It was graded as an easy walk, but Tim says it was almost mountain climbing as there was a couple of spots where there were a few steep rock hopping parts. As I mentioned already, Lou hung out with her new friends while we went on the walk so that was a big double win for her.

This was definitely one of our top spots to stop. We all had a great time here.