We left Baxter Rest Area about 8.15am. It was a lovely sunny morning with not much wind so it will be good for travelling and fuel economy. We are still on the 90mile Straight Road with very little vegetation or animals.
We are heading for another small town, Balladonia, where we got more fuel and stopped for morning tea on the roadside in our van. We love to stop and have a short break from driving and also make sure everything is secure in the van as we once forget to properly close a cupboard door, and that was a real nuisance as my container of rice fell out and spilled rice everywhere so we try to double check the cupboard doors now.
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| Balladonia Service Station for fuel |
We continued on to Norseman, about 120 km, and arrived there in time for lunch which we bought from a cafe and found a lovely little park where we had our lunch. The weather was sunny but not hot. It was so good to see some greenery after our days across the Nullarbor Plain.
Norseman is the southern gateway to Western Australia and is at the end of the Eyre Highway that spans 1,675 km across the Nullarbor Plain.
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| Lunch in Phoenix Park, Norseman |
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| Steam Engine on display |
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| Norseman |
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| Norseman |
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| Norseman |
We left Norseman and were looking forward to the next planned stop at Esperance. We were now leaving the Nullarbor and heading for the coast. Ahead was about 190 km trip passing through small towns. |
| Norseman |
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| Norseman |
In 1894 when prospector Laurie Sinclair stopped off to visit his brother on his way to Esperance, he tethered his horse "Hardy Norseman" overnight and in the morning was amazed to discover that it had pawed up a gold nugget. A rich gold reef was discovered on the already proclaimed Dundas Field and thousands flocked to make their fortune.
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| Norseman |
Our next stop was Grass Patch, a small settlement about 80 km north of Esperance. It is a farming area in the mallee region of WA. It was named after the farm settled in the district in about 1896.
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| Grass Patch monument which commemorates the pioneers in the district |
We arrived at Esperance and as we hadn't booked into a caravan park we pulled into an Information Bay but unfortunately there was no information there so we headed into the town centre and found directions to the Bathers Caravan Park and booked in for 2 nights. We set up and decided to have an early night as we were tired after a long day of driving (about 430km).
Oh, the rice spilling all over!
ReplyDeleteThe oddest thing was learning about the horse finding gold--lol!
Always fun to read about your adventures! :)