Today started off with a bang. We jumped out of bed to a morning that looked even more gloomy than yesterday. It had rained on and off during the night, but the wind saw us rocking like a drunken cowgirl on a mechanical bull.
The bang came at exactly 8.50am in the form of a Hyundai sedan deciding that ramming us in the rear of Puma was the WA sport for the day. They say other cars are Defender’s air bags. Well; it’s true! The Hyundai had a massive hole in its front courtesy of our towbar. It’s radiator was pushed back, and its bonnet stoved in considerably. Puma, ha, just a flesh wound. Not even a scratch on the tow ball cover could be seen. No injuries to anyone. We swapped names etc and headed off.
G was just on time for her hair appointment, whilst Peter returned to the van to do some study. About two hours later, G was set free from the blow drier and the day was ours. Her cut was exceptional. Even Peter could see this one was out of the box. He wondered the ongoing cost of G flying to WA every few weeks for a hair appointment though.
We dropped into the Esperance Information Centre for some information on the tourist drive we had heard so much about. The local lady with the strong American accent provided us with a map and comment on the much-anticipated Pink Lake. “When you get to here,” she drew on the map, “you might as well turn around and come back because the Pink Lake has not been pink for fifteen years. This other one over here is trying to be pink but isn’t.”
Peter was as flat as a cold pancake. His reason for visiting Esperance was to photograph the pink lake at sunset. The stunning image he envisioned would show a distinct line between the normal blue water and the algae coloured pink water meeting it. It would be a showstopper. All we could do was laugh.
We headed south along the coastline, directed by brown tourist signs pointing out each remarkable point of interest. Some were, some weren’t. The coastline however was beyond stunning. At each new bay the blistering wind and massive seas smashing against the headlands provided a show you’d pay good money for at the Brisbane Ekka. We just could not get enough of it. The bitter cold each time we got out of the car was worth every bit of discomfort. There is no way words or photos could do justice to our experience.
We motored on, deciding to do the whole tourist loop and not turn back prior to Pink Lake. We encountered point of interest number 14, or maybe it was 15, being a road leading up to a wind farm. With thoughts of our travelling friend Trevor, who desperately wants a wind turbine for his back yard, we admired the enormity of humankind’s engineering achievements towards building such a massive, overtly expensive, hard to dispose of, environmentally irresponsible thing to farm wind. After all, our experience showed Esperance had enough wind to last a lifetime. Why create a farm to make more?
We arrived shortly thereafter at Pink Lake. Immediately our attention was drawn to the sign the said, ‘Why is the Pink Lake not Pink’. We nearly rolled out of Puma laughing. This is the number one tourist attraction in Esperance. It has a road named after it. It has a caravan park named after it. But it doesn’t exist. The great train robbery had nothing on this heist!
After meeting the friendliest magpie we had ever encountered who hitched a ride on Puma’s bullbar, we plugged on to a glass recycling studio. In simple terms, a lady, whose name will one day be randomly remembered, grabs old bottles, torches them a bit till they melt, cuts the top off them, then charges heart attack prices for you to take them home and never use them. G bought one.
Back in town we decided a few hours at rest was a good way to spend the afternoon. Later we headed into town to the Fish Face restaurant. A quirky little place on a corner that doesn’t look much from the outside. On the inside, the outside is reflected. The food however is something else. As has been the norm for all of our trip in SA and WA, the fish was superb. It was however, soundly beaten by the sticky date pudding for dessert. No words, just no words. We devoured it like it was our last meal. Back at the van Peter studied for a few hours, now trying to work out how to change human behaviour through systems thinking, modelling and whatever else put him to sleep before he finished it.
