Perth to Esperance Campervan Road Trip - Britz

Five nights and 2,003 kilometres in a loop from Perth in a campervan, down to Esperance and back by a different road.

Cottesloe Beach and the Fremantle markets fill the first morning, then the route runs inland through Kojonup, a wool town with a strong Noongar cultural centre, to Albany on the south coast, the oldest European settlement in the state, with a whaling station museum and granite headlands.

Fitzgerald River National Park follows, a UNESCO biosphere reserve holding a remarkable share of Western Australia’s plant species in a tiny fraction of its area, much of it found nowhere else. Esperance is the destination, with Cape Le Grand and a coastline of white sand and startlingly blue water, and the return runs inland through Lake Grace and the Wheatbelt.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Six days for two thousand kilometres means two long days at either end, since Esperance is a full day’s drive from Perth whichever way is taken. Spring is the season, when Fitzgerald River and the Wheatbelt are both in flower. The whole route is sealed, so a standard camper handles it without difficulty. Esperance itself is the reason to make the drive: the bays around Cape Le Grand are as good as anything in the country and see a fraction of the visitors that the west coast does, largely because getting there takes a day.