With a hug and a handshake we left Maureen and Colin getting their van ready to leave, off in the opposite direction to us. We will miss them lots, but will make sure we visit them when we get to Sydney.

Then we were back on Highway 1, via a trip to the hardware store to pick up a little more stove fuel. This was our route for the whole day. Initially it was very busy with a lot of cars heading towards Esperance as we headed out of the town, I would guess they work in the town and need to be there for 9.00 am. The amount of traffic dropped considerably then and we only saw a few road trains all day.

Farmland as far as the eye could see

Today’s problem was the wind, no not as a result of eating beans, but the 15 mph full on headwind, it was relentless the whole day today, it was just pedal pedal pedal. The wind conspired with the hills as during the day we climbed from sea level (which is zero m high) to 250 m high.

At the nicely named Gibson Soak we stopped and had a cold fishcake, they tasted better than last night for some reason.

The local hotel, the food is supposed to be very good

The land either side of us was huge fields of stubble, but in places the farmers had begun to ferlilise and till ready for the next crop.

We also passed several dried up pools, some had a salt crust left as the water evaporated, much of the underground water is saline in nature, it is not just a straightforward pump it out of the ground and drink it. The town called Gibson Soak had a potable water company, there water is probably better there.

Dried pools abound

After 77 km of battling we arrived at Grass Patch, which is the actual name of the village. There is nothing here apart from houses and a local post office. They do however have a community caravan park, for $10 we can pitch our tent, the toilet block is clean and there is a small kitchen, however it is not a pleasing on the eye sort of place, but for us an ideal stop over.

Grass Patch here we are

Shower, food and sleep, while awaiting to see what tomorrow’s weather brings, the forcast is for a storm front to pass over, rain and even worse 20 mph winds. We shall see.