Perth to Esperance - Day 3

Another early start and today we drove out to Castle Rock in the Porongorup Ranges. Here we treked the steep 3km sides of the small mountain. The last 15 minutes of the climb was hard and the bushland turned to rock and boulders, some of which were vertical climbs but we all made it, both up and down. It gave great views over Albany.

Back to the bus for the 8 hour journey to Esperance. We stopped at a few remote places on the way. Pete phoned the office to confirm the roads were clear and we made our way on the dusty red roads with nothing but sparce, small green vegetation on either side.

The hostel in Esperance was really good, we were the first group through after the storms so the few people that were there were ozzies following work around the country.

After a bbq dinner everyone else wanted to stay in and play cards. I don't get that? We hadn't seen anything of Esperance so I convinced Rowena to join me at the local pub. There were about 10 men in there, mostly drunk miners. Esperance is a comuter belt for gold miners (about 2 hours drive from the mines). We had a game of pool with a couple of them...and won. Then went back to the hostel and played a few drinking games with everyone else before bed.

Group at Castle Rock summit