We had a few chores today to do in Esperance, so packed up with a view to leaving at about 10ish. A local farmer came down to grab the camp spot left by our drunken friends, he was driving a 1967 Land Rover Defender, and pulling a tiny ancient pop top caravan to put in the camp spot. That was it for Darren, all packing up ceased and the next thing I saw, was him in the Land Rover calling me to get the camera…(how does he manage these things so quickly?). Later there was the obligatory male huddle while they peered under its bonnet- would Freud find some relation with this to looking up girls’ skirts, I wonder?
Anyway, the short version of the story is that we got to Esperance a lot later than anticipated. By the time we had sent birthday cards, collected the NEW boat motor (and painfully forked out for it), done the washing and bought more petrol it was 5.30 and we were leaving Esperance for our next spot, fortunately only 30 kms away (19 miles)
Driving into the West therefore into the setting sun+ on a soft sandy track = not ideal. We haven’t got bogged since our experience near Dalhousie Springs (Oct 9), and we did not want it to happen again, so we uncoupled the caravan, and followed the sandy track till we were sure we could get through it. Fortunately the sandy track opened onto a private road that was used by the quarry, so was in great repair, so we were able to head back, collect the caravan and make our way to the camp spot. This was one of the spots Darren’s new friend at the boat shop had told us about, and he had told us if the gate to the private road had been open, to go on through, but this was late in the day and the quarry workers had gone home.
We had been told this was a camp near a lake, when we got there the lake was enormous! No need to be near any fellow campers for us. It was a pretty open area, with a sandy bottomed salt lake surrounded by trees. We camped on the west side, which meant we later caught the full moon rising over the water in the next few nights – really magical. By the quarry road we had seen lots of kangaroos in the fields beside it, and here was a free camp spot – perfect.
Anyway, the short version of the story is that we got to Esperance a lot later than anticipated. By the time we had sent birthday cards, collected the NEW boat motor (and painfully forked out for it), done the washing and bought more petrol it was 5.30 and we were leaving Esperance for our next spot, fortunately only 30 kms away (19 miles)
Driving into the West therefore into the setting sun+ on a soft sandy track = not ideal. We haven’t got bogged since our experience near Dalhousie Springs (Oct 9), and we did not want it to happen again, so we uncoupled the caravan, and followed the sandy track till we were sure we could get through it. Fortunately the sandy track opened onto a private road that was used by the quarry, so was in great repair, so we were able to head back, collect the caravan and make our way to the camp spot. This was one of the spots Darren’s new friend at the boat shop had told us about, and he had told us if the gate to the private road had been open, to go on through, but this was late in the day and the quarry workers had gone home.
We had been told this was a camp near a lake, when we got there the lake was enormous! No need to be near any fellow campers for us. It was a pretty open area, with a sandy bottomed salt lake surrounded by trees. We camped on the west side, which meant we later caught the full moon rising over the water in the next few nights – really magical. By the quarry road we had seen lots of kangaroos in the fields beside it, and here was a free camp spot – perfect.
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