Esperance is an interesting little place. Primarily an export base for its own regional agri economy it is also a little tourism hub. It is a completely different experience than the Margaret River, Denmark, and Albany not to mention Quandanning and Kondinin (the town I spent the night on a picnic table rather than brave the roos by pushing onto Hyden!).
It has an incredible harbour with something like 1200 islands in its 'Bay of Isles' if you include some of the large rocks as islands. Its teeming with wildlife, a deep water harbour, perfect white beaches and what appears to be a pristine unpolluted ecology.

I also learned it is home to some of the most creative, industrious, and entrepreneurial people I have met on my travels over the years in Australia.

After a perfect massage to straighten out my sore decrepit old body from hours of hanging on through gusting winds and torrential rains in the lead up to my arrival, I did the tour boat thing to Woody Island. I also had the absolute good fortune to meet Mini and her close friend Andrea.
I'm sure they took pity on this poor lonely traveller tapping away on his little computer with a funny tan on the back of his hands (from the shorty motorcycle gloves) while the rest of Australia was watching and celebrating the Grand final game. Mini and Andrea were on their way to a Geelong v St Kilda party in the shed of a local long haul trucking company. The company ran road trains full of grains from regional farms to the wharf at Esperance for loading and shipping to markets far and wide.
At this party I met a lovely bunch of people (yes , even you John!) and later found myself on a whirlwind tour of Esperance for a couple of days. I experienced it's incredible local beaches, a private 'Flyotel' Airport (Motel and Airport combined), a fellow motorcyclist who built planes to order, his incredible workshop with projects in progress, a boutique winery selling only 1200 cases of the most beautiful wines you ever tasted. All this culminating with lunch on huge bales of sheared wool hours before I mounted up again and headed off to Norseman to start my Nullarbor leg of the trip. Kind of and average day in New York City...not!
Thanks go to Mini and Andrea for taking their time to show me sites that are surely not on any tourist route! With a very special thanks to the inspirational Mini who is meeting and beating health challenges head on and surely living her life in a higher state of consciousness than most. I admire her courage in the aftermath of family tragedy and her sense of life and it's humour. Truly a remarkable individual... you are one of life's hero's Mini!

I wrote this while indulging in a huge breakfast in the Nullarbor town called WA/SA Border Village watching and hoping the rain will lighten up for the next leg of my journey.
I'll post some experiences about the Nullarbor soon.