After our night in Madura we set off along the Nullarbor again yesterday for the drive to Esperance and yet more driving along the same road for miles and miles. Just after we left Madura we came to the Nullarbor township where there was a sign marking the start of the longest straight road in Australia. For the next 146.6 kilometres the road didn't deviate so much as a foot to either side with the only variance being the occasional hill to alleviate the monotony.

When we had finally finished getting across the Nullarbor and made it to the town of Norseman we made our way to the visitor centre to get our "we crossed the Nullarbor" certificate only to find that they had gone out for lunch. So after refuelling for the hundredth time on this road we continued on to the town of Esperance on the south east coast of Western Australia.

We arrived late in the afternoon to the town that has the beaches that have been voted the best in Australia and as it was raining we turned in for an early night, ready to explore the town the following day. So imagine our delight when we woke up this morning to find that not only had it been raining all night long, it was still pouring down when we clambered out of our tent.

This continued all day until there was finally a break in the clouds around three o'clock and we decided that it was now or never to see what was around in the area so we set off along the Great Ocean Drive. This forty kilometre loop first took us to a lookout point just outside of town, where we could see out across the archipelago of islands and across the town and surrounding hillsides. There are one hundred and ten islands that make up the archipelago off the coast of Esperance and during this bout of clear sky we could make out quite a few of them but the wind soon had us heading back to the car to continue on around the loop.

We drove past several of the local beaches and even in the overcast conditions the white sand still stood out and we often stopped the car to look out over the water. We also drove passed one of the many wind farms in the area as the giant blades whirred above our heads and on to the Pink Lake around the back of town. Apparently there are some algae's and fungi in the lake that turn it pink, but with the sun shining in our eyes and the rain still coming down we couldn't see any of the pink that it is famous for.

The road then took us back to the campsite where we stayed for the rest of the afternoon while avoiding the rain. Tomorrow we are planning on moving a little further along the coast to see if we can find some decent weather before we head to Perth.