Much dampness everywhere this morning as all night not a breeze was seen, heard or felt. The tent was wet when packed. As a bonus today our packing was assisted by some chickens.

Only around 250 m on Highway 1 before we took a right hand turn down the Ravensthorpe Road, this road only leads to Hopetoun. This is a slight detour as the highway from Ravensthorpe to Esperance is extremely busy with commercial traffic, so avoidance is a good idea.

We passed a small flock of Emus (they were tiny compared to the last ones we saw) and dozens of kangaroos.

Unusually there was a warning sign for camels, but this may have had something to do with the farm further down the road offering camel treks!

Some of the farmers have way too much time on their hands, and made some steel flower arrangements which looked very nice.

Then the only real climb up of the day but once at the top a series of long descents and lond ascents and long flats made a very enjoyable cycle all the way to Hopetoun.

Then it was so nice to see the sea again as we rolled down into town. We stopped to ask in the tourist office about the Southern Ocean East Road, they confirmed it was closed due to severe flooding. It will mean a few extra miles along the Springdale Road tomorrow.

On to the campground where there was a nice spot just right for us, then a swift sort out our things then on to the beach. The beach was fabulous, empty and a beautiful blue sea, we even had a paddle and a sit down (Janet).

After a short beach walk we had a quick shop in the local IGA, steak tonight.

On returning we looking into the camp kitchen and eeeewww, we will not be using this at all, it is filthy and there were 2 dead mice in there. So we prepared a lovely steak on our own stove.

The showers here were very poor running intermittently hot, overall this gets a thumbs down for the $30 it cost.

It was back to the beach for a little while to watch the sun go down but tonight it went out with a splutter,not a bang in sight, maybe next time.