A PUB CRAWL BY SIX-SEATER PLANE? ONLY IN AUSTRALIA
Our six-seater plane is swooping and soaring over perhaps the most striking coastline I've ever seen. The water is a shade of aquamarine with beams of navy blue and bands of brilliant green running along the coast. Under a brilliant Australian sun, the sand is a dazzling, pure, blinding white, and nearly deserted on a beautiful day just three weeks before summer.
After giving us a good 20-30 minutes of enjoying the heck out of our bird's-eye view of the southern coast of Western Australia, our pilot with Fly Esperance, the young but seemingly well-seasoned Ben Wensley, steers us back over land and points out a dirt runway on a scrubby scrap of land with low-lying trees.
This is apparently where we'll be landing.
“We'll make a pass to scare off any cattle or kangaroos,” says Wensley.
The plane, a six-passenger Cessna 206, noses downward and we pass low over the landing strip, making enough noise to send any curious 'roos scurrying for cover.
After a slightly bumpy (hey, it's not YVR) landing, we're met by a couple of cars and taken to the Condingup Tavern, a spot that Ben tells us is popular with local ranchers.
We nod hello to what appear to be regulars at the bar and find a table on the shady patio. I tuck into two massive pieces of fish and a small mountain of chips as a local singer and guitarist dips into his repertoire of James Taylor and The Eagles.
It's the first of three pub stops on Fly Esperance's “Flying Pub Crawl,” a delightfully scenic and thirst-quenching tour of the highly underrated and under-visited southern coast of the vast Western Australia state.
Putting aside any jokes about an Australian tour that includes the local pub, it's without doubt the most unusual tour I've taken in my 15 years as a full-time travel writer.
Our journey began at the tiny Esperance Airport, where I had arrived the previous day to find nobody was staffing the Budget Rental Car counter.
After a quick phone call, a lovely woman named Hope came driving out from her home to give me my keys before heading off to a gender-reveal party.
IS IT STILL PINK LAKE IF IT'S PURPLE?
There are only three other passengers aboard. Russell and Deb are so-called “grey nomads” who have rented a motor home (sorry, “caravan”) and are traipsing about the country. A woman from Argentina who is working temporarily in Esperance has also heard the call.
Ben eases the plane off the runway and quickly has us zipping over a series of dozens, possibly hundreds, of small pink lakes.
There's a large lake near Esperance called Pink Lake, but that's only on a map. In fact, the weather conditions have changed over the past few years and the lake is now more of a deep purple. No matter, we're seeing dozens of small, rounded lakes in all shades of pink. I spot salmon-pink lakes and pastel-pink lakes and even borderline Barbie-pink lakes. It's like looking down the line of the lipstick counter at your local drugstore.
We also spot some lakes that are vivid green and even brilliant yellow.
It's a tad bumpy over land due to rising heat (even from the trees, Ben tells us over our intercom system), but as we get out to the ocean the flight is as smooth as a baby's bottom.
We glide over truly spectacular beaches — such as Twilight Bay, which looks like the Seychelles with its offshore rocks — and the long, luxurious sand at Blue Haven. We also pass some of the rocky Recherce Islands, named by French explorers who came here in the 1700s.
At one point I spot what looks to be a large shark patrolling the waters, but it's not unusual to see them in the Southern Ocean.
I also spotted swarms of fish and what I thought were some lively manta rays. As we glide along, Ben regales us with stories about the area's history and colourful characters, including Blackjack Anderson, an American pirate who set up shop on Middle Island and terrorized the local community. Anderson was murdered and is buried on the island.
We also pass over lovely Lucky Bay, where we occasionally spot kangaroos on the beach, and Frenchman's Peak, a rugged, coneshaped hill with a natural, oval gap near the top.
SAMPLING SURF JUICE AND LOCKDOWN DARK LAGER
Our second stop is at Lucky Bay Brewing, a popular spot on the outskirts of Esperance. It's a busy day and there are lots of people packing the patio. Kids are scampering about in a grassy playground dotted with picnic tables and barrels you can climb into and ride down a small slope. Off to one side, a woman with a guitar is playing on a small stage.
We sample a variety of great, local beers, including Surf Juice Lager, Shipwreck Stout and, as a nice demonstration of Aussie COVID humour, a Lockdown Dark Lager.
From there we take a short flight back to the Esperance Airport (two gates!), where we hop in a car for the three-minute drive to Gibson Soak. It's a historic, oldtime pub, built in the 1890s as a stopping point for folks heading to the gold fields north of Esperance, with a natural water spring.
It's a charming, pale yellow building that features walls decorated with shiny, silver hubcaps, AC/DC paraphernalia, a pool table and a jukebox.
Locals are gathered at the bar in the late afternoon, talking about everything from the weather to farm injuries. Outside on the shady patio I sip a Carlton Dry beer. We don't have time for a meal, but Ben tells me the lamb shank here is legendary.
The four of us in our small group sip our brews and go over the highlights of the day.
“I was a little nervous about being in a small plane, but I loved it,” Deb tells me.
“I felt the same way,” I confess with a grin.
“Smashing” is the adjective of choice for her husband Russell. “It's lot of money ($899 AUD, about $800 CAD), but it's a oncein-a-lifetime experience.”
Flying Pub Crawls might not be everyone's cup of tea. Or in everyone's price range. Luckily, Fly Esperance also offers a 4x4 ride along the white-sand beaches east of the city, taking you 50 km or so from Esperance to Cape Le Grand National Park and back. We ride over rolling sand dunes, and a fairly steep granite outcropping.
We also enjoy a nice picnic lunch at Lucky Bay and admire the smooth, pale rocks lining the aquamarine waters of Hellfire Bay, which might be the prettiest beach I know, with the least welcoming name.
On this tour, my travelling partners for the day are a family from England; a husband and wife with a boy of around 10 and a teenage girl.
The boy, who some might expect to have his nose buried in a video game, is particularly taken with the scenery. As we walk out to admire the glittering white sand and shiny-bright water at Hellfire Bay, he turns to his father.
“Dad, this is amazing!”
ABORIGINAL TOUR WITH DABUNGOOL CULTURAL EXPERIENCES
Another great tour in the Esperance area is an Aboriginal tour with Dabungool Cultural Experiences. My guide, Annie Dabb, was a wealth of knowledge and passed along lots of interesting bits as we walked over a massive dome of granite just west of the town's Rotary Park.
Dabb pointed out some acacia trees, with small pods covered with red and black dots. They don't look like much, but they're tiny seeds you can eat or grind into flour.
“A lot of plants here have medicinal qualities or can be eaten,” she says. “But some are just plants.”
The plants and animals in the area were critical to Aboriginal people's way of life.
“There were no chemist shops (drugstores), so we used what we had,” Dabb says.
She also points out small trees that witchetty grubs like to burrow into.
“They're yummy. You can fry them in butter, and they taste like scrambled eggs. Or you can eat them raw. They're very creamy that way, with vitamins and antioxidants. Just don't eat the heads,” Dabb warns us. “Your stomach won't like it.”
Next were some spiky plants and a warning not to sit on them as they're quite uncomfortable.
“We save those for cheeky grandkids,” she says with a smile.
On a more serious note, Dabb tells us: “We weren't considered humans back in the day. We were put in the category of flora and fauna. Now we have rights under the Australian constitution.
“Besides,” she tells me, “I'm no flower.”