Today we will be on a short tour to visit Esperance, Western Australia, which is a long way from anywhere, a dot on the far southeastern coastline of Western Australia.
Our tour; “Twilight and Highlights” will be a two hour snapshot of Esperance combined with a stop at Twilight Beach.
Hopefully the weather will be as nice ashore as it has been these past two days at sea.
Last night our clocks were turned back 30 minutes, the two previous nights it was rolled back an hour each!! We are getting so much sleep, we can’t stand it …. right. However, when we reach the Northwestern Coast of Western Australia, we start giving those hours back.
Australia covers just about the same geographical area as does the “lower forty-eight” yet has only six states on the continent, with the Tasmania being the seventh.
When we docked today in Esperance, Barbara and I will have physically “landed” in all seven. Northern Territories – Darwin, Queensland – Cairns, New SouthWales – Sydney, Victoria – Melbourne , Tasmania – Bernie – Hobart, and South Australia, Adelaide, Western Australia, Esperance.
If you haven’t realized it yet, by my writings, I am in love with Australia and so is Barbara. What’s not to love when a country has such cuddly characters such as the one pictured below?
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Our day started out quite nice, weather-wise, with some low overcast, however when we got off the ship provided free shuttle bus, the wind was blowing “spit-rain” in our faces. Someone repeated the old world wide weather adage “Just wait five minutes and it will change” …. well advised, cause it did!
Esperance’s claim to fame was brought about when on July 12th 1979, the first American space station “Skylab, tumbled out of control through the night sky and slammed back to Earth near Balladonia, in Western Australia. Fragments of the spacecraft are now on display in the Esperance Museum, just a short walk from the shuttle bus stop. The story has it that after all the debris was recovered, our government was presented with a bill of $400 for “littering. It was never paid until a donor gifted that amount to the Australian government.
The museum is a treasure trove of artifacts telling the story of the early history and culture of this farming and fishing community.
A beautiful park near the museum.
After lunch on the ship, we boarded a tour/school bus, for our “Twilight and Highlight” tour.
Twilight Beach, with it’s “silky” pure white sand. So fine that it will squeak when compressed.
Our tour driver/narrator “Jos” did an outstanding job with her narrations of the culture of this fairly isolated community. The bus was the top of the line and is used when school starts, in January, to bus the Outland kids to school, a round trip of over three hours.
On our final stop; Twilight Beach, Jos took this picture to commemorate our 55 years of marriage.
Next: A visit to Albany, Western Australia and other southern coastal city.
Cummings Family Adventures 
Maybe you won’t want to come back home when your tour is done. And an anniversary to remember in a place you love. Gorgeous beach. Doesn’t look real. Bet the air smells wonderful. That’s amazing, a whole four hundred dollars for littering! Guess our gov’t didn’t take them seriously. Glad someone did. Tell us more stories Jack. Thank you.
Great photos, thanks for sharing.
Nice ball cap!
OK, I am totally envying that beach!!! I could literally spend hours there enjoying those surroundings. How perfect. The water there is gorgeous. I bet the culture of those fairly isolated people would be interesting to learn about. I wonder about their jobs, medical and sense of community there. I bet it has some advantages to our fast paced society. I love the picture of the fishing and space artifacts. We have really come leaps and bounds in our space exploration compared to what it was before. Thanks for sharing this with all of us! Lisa
Descriptions make reader feel like they are there too. Loved the beach and especially the photo of you two together. You help many enjoy the trip with you. Thanks. Lynn