Leaving the Beautiful South Coast

Last stop before the Nullabor is Esperance. We travelled here via Hopetoun; a pretty place, pretty dead that is. Sorry Hopetoun, you are pretty but there seem to be a lot of empty buildings. A casualty of the mining downgrade I guess.

Fitzgerald River National Park will live on in my memory as the place I got my first official "Senior's" discount. I got my card a week or so ago and a day pass to the park was half price ($6) for vehicles with a Senior driving! I've waited 60 years for this although I think Trish was possibly more excited than me. She loves a bargain.

Had a vigourous storm at Tozer's bush camp out of Bremmer on Sunday night. Tested the van because at times it felt like some of the wind gusts had the potential to blow it over, but clearly it didn't or I wouldn't be writing this so cheerfully. Tozer's is an interesting place. A caravan park carved out of the middle of a farm about 20kms out of Bremmer. The owner "Toz" lives in town but comes out everyday and seems to enjoy having a beer & a chat with his customers. A middle aged typical windswept farmer Toz had a vision that if he built it they would come, and with some limitations it seems they do. There was only one other couple there with us, but Toz reckons he's had over 100 a night in the high season (New Year).

The camp has a large, central, fully equipped kitchen cum rec room, with a TV and internet connectivity. Fantastic showers of substantial size and all the hooks for clothes and towels you could ask for. Hooks are very important in an ablution block. One for dirty clothes, one for fresh clothes, one for the towel. Yes, you need hooks. Top spot.

In Esperance we are camped on the verge at Georgie & Dennis's place. They are leaving tomorrow as Georgie has a job in the Tennant Creek prison but they have been fabulously hospitable in the midst of their packing. I have put my back out somehow, possibly all the driving or just a bad bit of bending. If I sit down, when I stand up I walk like an old man for the next five minutes & then it seems to straighten out. Georgie recommended a Chinese massage place that she uses in town so I went & gave them a try. (I've often mused on who uses these ubiquitous places, well now I know.) Ethel, a petite Chinese lass of surprising strength pounded my back for half an hour and when I got up it felt worse than when I went in. After a short walk that passed and now I've been sitting in Esperance Dome for an hour or so and it feels fine. Something in it after all.

An Albany Work of Art Views an Esperance Work of Art!

Ok, bring on the Nullabor.