A day on the road

We bid adieu to Esperance and head back to Perth.  Today is much cooler than yesterday, thank goodness. 

We took one last walk along the Esperance pier, paused to take a picture with Sammy the Seal statue, and chatted with locals as they were setting up their gear for a day of fishing.

Winds gusts were up to 35 - 40 mph and one good gust took Tony's favorite straw hat.  It served him well during our travels and he was going to leave it at Genie's anyway so it's OK.  We watched the hat bobbing in the current for about 10 minutes as the tide took it slowly out to sea. 

We hit the road at 11:30am via a different route than the one we took to get to Esperance.  Lots of farm land and wide open spaces.  All of the fields were dry and brown.  Genie told us that by the end of their summer (March-April) the fields will be bleached to almost white from the hot sun.  It appeared the cattle, horses and sheep all appreciating the cooler weather.  Winds continued to gust for the first 4 hours of our trip and then calmed down.

We stopped at the Hog's Breath Café just outside of Perth for dinner.  As Genie put it, this is as Americana as you're gonna get !.  We enjoyed a good steak and salad and were home by 9am.

According to the sky... we should have a full moon here for New Year's Eve !