Day 10

Today we break back into civilisation - Yay!  What better way to start that than warm oats for breakfast, cooked on the resurrected camp fire.  Mmmm warm oats.

Back on the highway heading south we also resurrected our game of car cricket.  The Kalgoorlie-Esperance railway line parallels the highway for much of the way.  At one point we saw a whole bunch of train carriages and bogie wheels sitting upside down next to the track - perhaps there was a derailment recently?  We doubted it had just happened because the bogie wheels had been arranged in a particular way beside the track.

The road south to Esperance is fairly unexciting so I'll bore you with the car cricket scores.  Morgs won the Five-5 match (same as T-20, but with reduced overs) 1/85 vs my average score of 0/67.  I then called it the first match in a Tri-series (yeah, I effectively cracked it and said "best out of three").  We're yet to finish the second match.

We arrived in Esperance and firstly tried to acquaint ourselves with where everything is in the town, since there were a number of jobs we needed to complete before moving on.

Second job: Shopping!
Third job: Maccas for lunch!

I booked the car in at a local mechanic to get the oil and filter changed first thing tomorrow morning.  Months ago I estimated that the oil change would be done around Esperance... my estimate was 454km off the mark!   Not bad estimate I reckon... probably would have been that far over if I did it at home anyway.

Quote of the day by Simon: "Wow!  Look at that huge aeroplane propeller!" (It was a wind turbine prop).

Since we were in civilisation and spoiling ourselves with treats like McDonalds and paying mechanics to service the landcruiser (I haven't done that since the used car warranty ran out), we thought we'd stay in a caravan park cabin to break the monotony of setting up the tent.  The cabin was more like a serviced apartment!  The cabin had modern fittings, soft leather couch, flat screen TV, reverse-cycle air.  We paid $5 more for a cabin in Wudinna (between Port Augusta and Ceduna) and we got genuine 1970's fittings, a cloth-covered couch, 30cm CRT TV and an aviary full of sick or diseased budgies and cockatiels.

We had a couple of hours to kill in the afternoon.  I went fishing and tried out my new surf rod whilst Morgs kicked back in the cabin and watched movies.  I first went to the beach recommended by the caravan park lady only to find that 80% of it is covered in rock and the other 20% was already taken by fishermen.  I found a nearby beach with no one else on it so I could practice my casting, I mean try and catch a fish.  OK, I'll be honest - I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to fishing.
After taking a few photos of the sunset from the lookout I returned to the cabin to find Morgs asleep watching a chick flick.  If anyone has heard that I enjoyed the movie she was watching please take note that it's a lie - a big, fat flagrant lie.

Mmmm... warm showers and a soft bed to sleep in.