Day 200 Esperance, WA

Day 200 and we are still married.......😍😍😍

The weather has again turned cold and wet.  Not enough rain to annoy us though and it actually made the drive from Ravensthorpe to Esperance very pleasant.  We had no reason to rush leaving this morning and didn't get away until just before 10am.  For those who haven't seen our set-up, this is a photo of how we hitch the fifth wheel caravan to the car.  It's just a matter of pushing two buttons to raise the front legs and then Philip simply reverses up under it.  He has a line of rivets on his toolbox that lines up perfectly with the ball on the Toyota and I have it down to a very fine art as to when he should stop so that I can lower the van.  It literally takes minutes to drop the van onto the ball.  Brilliant!

The drive across to Esperance is one of the most scenic drives we have done in quite awhile.  There are acres upon acres of crops waving in the wind with all the colours of green to gold.  It is mostly wheat as the canola is now being harvested.  Speaking of canola, it was just north of Geraldton when we came across our first paddock of the golden canola.  I will never forget that beautiful colour as we came over a rise in the hills.  It seemed to stretch for miles.  As we have travelled we have seen the canola go from the yellow flower to when it drops it flowers and finally goes to seed with its large seed pods.  Of course the seeds are where they get the oil.  I posted a photograph yesterday and forget to talk about it on the blog.  They way the canola is harvested is by slashing it and it is then formed into long wind rows.  The canola has to dry out over several days and is then baled and ready for processing.  This is a photo that I took yesterday of the wind rows waiting to be dried and baled.

 Not far out of Ravensthorpe we passed under a very long conveyor belt.  As far as we could see in both directions was this very long conveyor belt.  It wasn't far past this and out to our right that we could see a processing plant in the distance.  A quick google search and I found that this is a Nickel Mine.  It has been placed in "care and maintenance" for a number of years but with the higher nickel prices it is once again in full production.  

Philip was talking to the couple beside us this morning and they were saying that there has been a large gold find in the Esperance area that is about the size of Kalgoorlie!  We know that Ravensthorpe has a rich history of gold mining so it doesn't come as a surprise. What is disheartening though is the thought of more country being ripped apart in the search of yet more mineral.  Apparently this latest gold mine is in the heart of the Fitzgerald River National Park.  Oh dear.....

As we draw closer to Esperance we start to see some massive trees on either side of the road.  They are the biggest eucalypts we have seen (apart from the Karri) and we will try and find out what they are.  The wildflowers continue to bloom on the side of the road and I am looking forward to seeing some more of them when we follow another scenic drive that I have lined up for tomorrow, that will take us along the coastline west of Esperance.