The journey to Esperance showed me so much space, with wide straight roads ( when GoogleMaps told me to turn in 127km, they really meant that was the very first turn ) where everyone does the country wave of acknowledgement. A feature of our WA wheatbelt area is slowly changing, rolling country with trees outlining the waving golden wheat or stubble with hay bales. It’s not spectacular on first sight, but grows on you hour after hour, it’s giving me space to think and process the events of the last weeks, months and years.
As a complete surprise, the grain silos in Ravensthorpe have been painted, it’s spectacular as you round a bend in the road and see this ahead of you. About 8 or so little towns have had the silos painted, adding a lovely quirky touch to the landscape, while honouring the usage of the land.
I’m now in Esperance, sitting in my little apartment having been blown off the beach and path by wind and horizontal rain ! Yesterday late afternoon was beautiful down by the shore, this morning not quite as much. These photographs from yesterday, where I seriously considered swimming.
Today … the forecast storm came in, I got a few beach walks in before the wind and horizontal rain came in off the Southern ocean and blew me into a cafe for warmth and lunch. However, the beaches here are the best I have ever seen, and that’s a 20km round trip from town. There’s space, and air, and a clarity to the light that is indescribable.
And given the location of Esperance on the Roaring Forties, wind turbines are the perfect source of power for the town. I had to lean into the wind on my hasty return to the car, as the rain came marching in from the ocean.
My Longest Journey 