Esperance

I had decided to spend three nights in Esperance and the campsite was so comfortable that I could have spent longer.  Each pitch was numbered and although the number for tents was relatively small, the majority being for caravan and camper vans, they were surrounded by grass with a fabric base sheet making it an ideal surface for the tent.  Being a belt and braces type of bloke I nevertheless spread my footprint groundsheet as well.  As soon as my tent was erected I was approached by a couple of elderly ladies who engaged me in conversation.  They were from a place on the coast of Western Australia north of Perth and the brother of one, who was a retired cray-fisherman, has a motorcycle collection.  She told me that he had 7 or 8 Vincents and she gave me his contact details so that I could visit on my way through.  She phoned him and told him to expect me.  They then invited me to share some wine with them and we had a good old chinwag.  Seems there was a lot of money to be earned in cray-fishing!  I subsequently discovered these links - https://advrider.com/f/threads/largest-private-vincent-collection-in-the-world-jurien-bay-wa.1269996/
and https://www.bikeshedtimes.com/from-hrd-to-black-lightning-and-rtv1200-ian-boyd-has-amassed-the-ultimate-vincent-collection/
I spent the following morning on domestics (haircut, shopping, drinking coffee etc) and in the afternoon I rode along the coast where I saw some spectacular beaches.  I was told that although nice they don’t compare to those on the west coast so further whetting my appetite.

I also went to view the pink lake for which Esperance is famous, but it was white!  It appears it has not been pink for a number of years.  Seems to me that there has been a bit of a breach of the trades
description act as the town still stresses the attraction of the pink lake and it features in most of its
advertising.

I had the tappets serviced on the Friday to meet the conditions of the warranty and it came out of the workshop sounding less like a Singer sewing machine.  Incidentally, whilst in Esperance I emailed the RE dealer in Sydney for advice on the suspension.  It is very inconvenient to have to search continually for a camber when putting the bike on the sidestand, particularly at petrol stations where, apart from country ones where the ground is often unsealed, the surface is relatively flat and even.  I was given the details of a firm in Perth and on telephoning them I discovered that they had experience of the problem and they had modified the suspension on a number of Himalayans, including the owner’s own machine.  So I booked the bike in for the work to be done the following Thursday.  Later that day I rode along the coast again and also visited several of the local lakes one  of which was teeming with birds.  The only other people there were an elderly couple who told me they visited this lake every day and that they had never before seen so many birds there.

It  rained overnight and I packed up leisurely in sunlight hoping the tent would dry before departure.  It did largely and I departed for  Albany to wend my way around the rest of the south coast of WA.