Esperance

12-19-08

There was a little Christmas parade today downtown and I was just leaving when this dog/ reindeer showed up. This dog was not happy at all and I doubt if they women made it very far with that dog.

I went into a joint and ordered some Flake (shark) and chips. OH, that is good food. I like the max. being ‘wot ever’ for the chips.

I gotta get this in here for Ralph the sheep sheerer. The trucker guy I was talking with and got all that info on his truck was a sheerer as well as a trucker. He told me that they got $2.50/sheep to shear them and the wool if good quality brought about two bucks a pound. They actually know about pounds, feet, miles and acres here as well as the government enforced metric system. Or at least the old ones do, the kids might know only metric. 

This is on the little tourist ride out of town. Nice beaches with no one on them.

wind farm

They were pretty cool to stand under and listen to them generate.

This place is supposed to have the bluest cleanest water and the whitest sand. Looks good to me.

Back in town is this cool little roller in a kids park for them to play on.

I went out to Cape Le Grand which is a national park. A really nice ride out there and the beaches were fantastic. There are many beaches that you can get out and drive on. The sand was very firm and nice to ride on.

There were a few surfers here but not many. The big surf waves are further down the coast. I think the offshore islands interfere with the waves.

There was just enough wind for some sand sailing.

Here is another closer photo of that weird tree and its flowers.

Flower friends take heart; spring will be there in a few months.

A few more for your pleasure that I think are the same kind but no red center.

This town is also a grain shipping harbor.

when this guy is full he will be down to the paint mark on the side. When I look at the huge grain storage facilities on shore and the size of this ship, they must really ship a lot of wheat out of here. I know a lot of our wheat in Montana get exported to asia and probably this wheat is going there too. That ship load will make a lot of bread or noodles.

I was at a little fish and chip joint (again, cant keep away) and who should come riding in but Zoli the Hungarian Honda rider I met a few days ago. He was riding around town looking for a cheap place to stay and saw the Ozdog. We rode to a couple of caravan parks before he found one to his liking. He said he had met another American bike rider and after he got his place set up we went to town and found Keller who is not really an American, but is from Texas…

We had a drink and planned a ride for the next day.

Ok, here is the next day. Keller shipped his BMW 1200 GS over which was a big hassle but he wanted his own bike to ride. Off we went around that loop from town.

The roads for the tourists are really nice.

Zoli didn’t realize that we were going to go that far and didn’t fill up his tank. Here you see him Here is Zoli stealing some gas from the Ozdog.

and putting it in  his greedy Honda Hog.

Keller ready to ride in his new Aerostich outfit. That new coat sure makes my old one look rather ratty. I just hang my coat on my bike though and leave it because I know, no one would want it, or even to touch it. He turns out to be a (or retired I didn’t ask) lawyer that deals with oil and gas leases down in Texas area. Same old shit everywhere ya go.

We made it back to town but Zoli ran out of gas again but this time in sight of a gas station. I pulled the old trick of riding up behind and to the side and put my foot on his tail pipe and pushed him all the way to the gas station. This was an old trick for me from back from my Harley days with the little 2.2 gallon gas tanks we had back then. Keller had never seen that trick before and was amazed. I told Zoli I should have just pushed him back rather than have him take gas from my Ozdog. Actually I had a short length of rope if it came to that. I guess we also used that trick of pushing bikes to get them started when it was cold. Ah, back in the good old kick starting days. My Sportster was a pretty good starter so I did a lot of pushing. The trick was to just get one bike started and then you could push the rest to start them. you know, there really is some advantages to battery starting.

Nice warm but windy days now.
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Just went down town to get something to eat and found a Turkish bakery. I had them make me something they called a Pida. Yeah, it is good and more than I needed for supper so it is nice to have some road food for tomorrow.

I took the long way back to my hostel by way of an IGA supermarket to get some other foodstuffs and came across these guys practicing cricket. That little ball they throw is really hard. One of the guys was telling me that I needed to come tomorrow night and they would have a game. He then proceeded to explain the game to me for about five minutes. About the only thing I got out of what he wa saying is that they hit the ball if they can and chase it around the field. Sounds like fun eh? I see them play it on the TV and it sure doesn’t seem to make sense. They really get a run at it to pitch that ball though. It is a strange way to throw but then I suppose our way is odd to them.

He said if he lets the ball hit the little white fence, he is out. It would be interesting to watch the game and have someone that knows what is happening explain it as it goes along. It would help if you could understand what he said too……