More rain today - can't shake the stuff off for very long it appears. Found a bike shop that will change the oil at 10:30 am so I head back to Macca's for a coffee and to warm up for a bit. Had a good chat to the guys in the shop while waiting for the oil to be changed. I was planning to head to Israelite Bay which is west of Esperance, but is accessed by some pretty cool offraod tracks. On the way I was going to look at Cape Le Grand national park on some tracks I had found on the GPS. Trouble is, the tracks are only for land management vehicles only, and I don't have enough fuel to go all the way to the cape, and to get to Condingup to refuel. bugger.
On getting to Condingup I find that their pumps aren't working! Great, I think have enough fuel to Esperance, but then the owner takes pity on me and sells me some fuel from his own supply at his house. While filling up he reckons that getting to Israelite will be a tough ask given all the rain and that the track will be a 'bloody mess'. I kind of believe him given that some of the dirt roads into Condingup were a handful and they were proper graded roads. He suggested to at least check out Duke of Orleans beach. So I do and it's a ripper - white sands, green/blue water - just like the photo's in the travel blurbs. Esperance is well known for it's beaches, so it was good to see at least one of them!
I decide to head to Balladonia on the Balladonia Road. It started out as a wide graded road that is used to service all the farms/stations. Soon enough it started to get corrugated, then became rocky twin track that was a hoot to ride. For the last 70kms into Balladonia I was on the pegs, looking out for roos and rocks, all the while looking over my shoulder staring at an awesome sunset. Everything was clicking and I was in heaven. However, I probably should have pulled over and made camp as it started getting dark. I had to slow down, the road was become a chopped up mess and it was dark Once again, my 2 candle power headlight was barely keeping the night at bay. I had to pull over twice as I could have sworn that I had two flat tyres. It was only the road and gravel and my not being able to see the road properly that was making the bike squirm everywhere.
I pulled into the Balladonia Roadhouse - booked a room, had a shower, grabbed a Cooper's Pale Ale and Chicken Parma - what a great way to end what turned out to be a great day.
Have heaps of photo's of the beaches, but my camera was on some weird setting and they pretty much are no good :(
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