Esperance to Norseman

Esperance seems like a far away dream... We spent 1 day and 1 night on Woody Island, a small paradise with sea-birds and wonderful quiet creeks where we at last managed to use the snorkel we had carried with us since Walpole, to the annoyance of John who always had to pack it in his bag!
On the way North we had our first day with a TAIL WIND! What bliss! We glided on and on effortlessly and managed to reach Grass Patch, 80km from Esperance where we found a tavern (closed, but the kind proprietor said she would cook us fish and chips at 7 o'clock, 2 hours to wait - John is starting to get addicted to chips...) and more importantly showers! Despite the name there was not a blade of grass around and John was already dreading bending yet another tent peg on the hard ground, when the tavern lady, feeling compassionate, offered us her lawn to camp on. It was soft and comfy despite the many ants and the road trains roaring past next to us all night.
The following day, reached Salmon Gums, so called because of the wonderful Eucalyptus trees with a pink bark which were to be our companions until Kalgoorlie. We were ready for civilization but the 2 or 3 houses seemed derelict and we even had pay $! a litre for our water at the petrol station. Thank goodness, Arnie, at the Salmon Gums Hotel, although he had lost his cook Jackie (she had walked out with part of the till the previous evening) had a kind heart, cooked us bacon and eggs and shared with us his worries, amongst which were how he was going to manage to look after his customers without a cook and also after his pet kangooroo as he followed Jackie everywhere.
After this hearty breakfast we felt like conquering the whole Australia. What a mistake! It was just after 10 am, the sun was beginning to burn fiercely. At 11.30, we saw some shade, stopped and fought with the flies to eat our sardines and avocado. Worst of all was the honey: I found 2 or 3 flies in it, John was battling all the time, by 4 o'clock we were both de-hydrated by the hot easterly wind and we still and to do 80km before reaching Norseman!
We eventually set off at 5.00, when some clouds came from nowhere and blotted out the sun. What luck! Little did we know that a storm was preparing... within 20 minutes the sky had darkened and drops of rain started to falll. It was lovely and cool but not so lovely when water literally poured from the sky. We were sheltering under a tree, covering our saddles with our capes, looking like drowned rats, when a camper van stopped and 3 young people asked us if we wanted a lift up to Norseman. Apparently there was a bush fire down the road! I was elated! We somehow managed to load the tandem in the van and drove in luxury to Norseman. I will forever be grateful to Brian and his girl friend for stopping.