Unbeknown to us when we parked yesterday afternoon, we had stopped in a campground through which runs a rather busy freight train line. Thus, rather than falling to sleep with the rumbling sound of trucks in my ears and visions in my thoughts, it was to the creaking of steel wheels grinding against the steel rails as trains struggled slowly around the bend in the track. We had imagined after the first train rumbled by, that way out here in the sticks as we were, surely it would be the only one, but how wrong were we as a further 5 or 6 trains made their way noisily past our camp throughout the night.
Despite the groaning of the rail freight pervading the silence, I slept well, and awoke ready to face the day. And what a day it was to be, a balmy warmth already evident when I looked out of the van at just after 9:00AM. The warmth however brought a swarm of blowflies with it, and stepping out of the confines of the van saw me almost instantly covered in a thick black veneer of the buzzing pests.
Our hastiness to move on was hampered slightly this morning also by the need to re-hitch the van to ‘The Beast’. As a result of the sloping bit of dirt on which we had parked, it had been necessary to drop the van off of the ball to level things out yesterday. Even with the delay caused by wedding the van to ‘The Beast’ again, we managed to roll out of the camping area a few minutes earlier than planned, heading further south and back towards the coast to take our chances with the weather.
There were no stops along the way today, apart from a brief respite to use the bathroom, before we reached our destination at a caravan park on the outskirts of the seaside town of Esperance. We were actually a little worried about staying here, as the price suggested that it might be a bit of a dive. At $20.00 per night, it is one of the cheapest caravan parks in which we have laid our heads, but on first impressions it seems more than adequate for our needs.
That said, the access roads are quite narrow, which made getting around the park to our allotted site a little more difficult than I would have liked, but it all went smoothly from there. Even with the tight space we had to work with, we were able to quickly and rather easily reverse the van onto our site. This I think was a major disappointment to a few other campers who were peering out from beneath their shade giving awnings, watching our efforts, no doubt hoping for us to fail miserably. No such show was to be performed today however, and we were quickly kicking back in the comfort of our home on wheels.
The first order of business once we were set up, was to make arrangements with the air-conditioning mechanic to come out to have a look at our otherwise inept reverse cycle cooling and heating unit. Thankfully he is able to take a gander at it tomorrow morning, so with any luck we will soon enough have the luxury of heating and cooling in the van again. At this rate, we may well need both functions, as the temperature today has reached a top in the higher range of the twenties, although our luck may not hold, with cooler weather and possible storms forecast for our time here in Esperance.
Following a quick lunch in the van, we headed out for a look around, to see what Esperance has to offer for us. Along our travels, we have heard many positive reviews of Esperance, so we are expecting big things. Maybe it was the darkening clouds amassing over the ocean or our unrealistic expectations of the town, but we didn’t find it to be as exciting as we had hoped. The biggest draw card is said to be some of Australias best beaches though, so I look forward to seeing them under the bright light of a gleaming sun. Maybe that will change my first impression.
In town, we had enough time to visit the information centre, where the helpful staff trotted out the usual line of “Here’s a book. Everything you need to know is in there.” Really? Is that all you’ve got in your verbal arsenal to endear your town to visitors. If so the city may as well save a few bucks by replacing the centre with a magazine rack and a sign that says: “Here’s a book. Everything you need to know is in there.” We did eventually flick through the glossy pages of the brochure to pick a few things out that we want to see while in town though.
Historic Museum Village.
Lined up through the park adjacent the visitor information centre was a series of little historical buildings, all moved to this location over time, and now billed as a Historic Museum Village. A range of arts and craft biased businesses call the cottages home, so we browsed through them slowly before taking a drive around the main shopping area of town.
That was pretty much the extent of our afternoon, and we soon found ourselves back at the van, ready to kick back for the rest of the day. It feels like it’s been a busy few days, so a chance to have a break was a welcome respite from the constant go, go, go that we’ve endured over the last week or so. It was just a shame that a marauding squadron of mosquitoes wreaked havoc on our attempt to watch the sky light up luminously pink with the setting sun.
What’s that saying about pink sky at night?
Oh, I must mention too, for those of you who are interested, I have put a couple of tips in relation to the kilometre challenge somewhere on the website. It will be up to you to see if you can uncover them. Best of luck.
Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.
Our Aussie Adventures 