Fraser Range Station to Esperance.

Dinner last night was pork ribs, massive meals, tasty and nutritious. The dining room is packed, the two young women cooking and serving do a great job. Food quality has been exceptional here at Fraser Range Station. The blonde girl with the dreadies from Finland is everywhere doing everything, I hope they pay her well! It hasn’t got any warmer!!

Somebody in a van, I think, leave their Starlink open, no password – it runs at 100 Mbps whereas the Telstra link is at 9 Mbps. Interesting!!

Fraser Range Station – the story. Established in 1872, it was the first Pastoral Lease on the Nullabor. It’s about 500,000 acres, a mix of granite hills, eucalypt forests and it’s still a working sheep station diversing to include more cattle with a growing accommodation business. The old buildings, some timber and steel and some stone had some labour input from convicts and Aboriginal workers. It’s a great spot to stop.

The road to Norseman is straight, and an interesting tree appears, shiny copper/ brown bark, dark glossy green leaves, we discover in Norseman its Eucalyptus Salubris or Gimlet. A very pretty tree. There are also Salmon Gums, enough to name a village after apparently.

A coffee in Norseman after Don and I play the two Nullabor Masters holes, a par 5 followed by a par 4, we’re accompanied ( not helped) by Wally, Jenzy and Harve. Lots of good advice is given, very little is taken. The fairways were cut high, the greens were uneven and the pace was hard to read. We both had good shots and extraordinarily bad shots. Harve stood on the green waiting for us, unfortunately he was at about a safe a spot as he could be. As we head into the final round of the tournament with 4 holes to play, we are square. Not sure if there is a play off if we end square? I’m sure I’ll hear from Jesus with guidance on this, I haven’t seen any messages from him lately.

A coffee after golf settles the angst that poor golf brings to poor players dreaming of long straight drives, pitch shots that spin back towards the hole and putts that slowly wind their way to gently drop into the cup. But, I’ll keep dreaming these things.

We turn sharp South towards Esperance, initially through eucalypt and mallee country then cultivated broadacre farming commences, wheat and canola that is flowering. Bright green and brilliant yellow, in large paddocks. We stop for a few photos, the drone struggles in the windy conditions suggesting to me –  ” Be Careful – Strong Wind Warning”. I’m glad it handles the conditions and returns to me safely and I don’t have to dive into the canola crop to retrieve it.

We drive through little places like Salmon Gum, Dundas, Grass Patch, Scaddan and Gibson on the way.

Esperance is a nice looking town, about 14,500 people, modern, clean, bright and spread out, there is plenty of room for development out here.

Dinner venue is decided on, after a little toing and froing,  Lucky Bay Brewing at Lucky Bay is the winner. A boutique brewer, funky new building, very pleasant girl who serves us and gives a little free advice on  things to do in Esperance. A little expensive but ok.  The pizza is good and a bit of photo reminiscing chews up the time.

Tomorrow we’ll explore Esperance, it looks a pretty nice place.

Cheers

Pauolo