Day 30
Friday 14th March
Esperance Hotel Gig
I woke in the morning with a dry mouth and the familiar feeling of feeling pretty ordinary after a big night. Harv felt even worse I’m sure. But for some reason he decided that he wanted to enter a local triathlon race that was to be held on Sunday. An Olympic distance race that consists of a 1500m swim, 40km bike ride, and 10km run. It meant we would have to stay an extra day, and make up kilometres, but for some reason it sounded like a good idea. And Harv was keen so he called the local organiser and set everything in.
Harv was star fished on the ground lying in the sun looking as if he was dying of a hangover. Our old mate we met the day before came over to our camp to stand around and tell Harv what to do. Don’t lie in the sun, go for a swim, why are you doing that, why don’t you do this, blah, blah, blah. It was a bit annoying, but quite funny. Harv wasn’t enjoying it with the state his head was in. Eventually old mate asked us if we wanted to go for a drive so he could show us some beaches around Esperance.
We jumped in the car and started by driving to a huge look out. You could see all over Esperance, and out to the surrounding bays and beaches. A really beautiful sight after spending some time in the desert. I couldn’t believe how many islands there are around Esperance. We drove along a windy ocean road that followed the coastline and dropped in at a couple of beaches. The water was coloured with a refreshing blend of blues and greens, and looked so clean and untouched. We got out at one of the beaches and Harv went for a swim. I thought it might wake him up a bit, but we returned to the car where he fell asleep.
I refer to the guy driving us around as old mate because I cant remember his name. We asked him numerous times but just cant remember. So I do apologise to him if he ever gets to read this. We kept driving and he wanted to show us a hill where there is a local billy cart race every year. We drove up the hill and spun around and stoped at the starting line. He kept raving about how good it would be to ride down it in a billy cart. It looked quite intense actually. He put the car in neutral and we rolled down the hill from the starting line. The car picked up quite some speed and I was almost worried that he wouldn’t break for any of the corners. But he threw on the breaks and we cruised down. He took us to a lake where he goes fishing and then headed to the caravan park. It was such a nice thing for him to do for us. We thanked him and started packing up our tents and things to head to the pub.
That night I had to play a gig at the Esperance Hotel and there was accommodation included in the deal so we headed there and checked into the room. Ahhh… a nice bed to sleep in. We both settled in for a bit of a snooze before the gig, but for some reason couldn’t sleep, so we went and had an earlier dinner.
I sat by the bar for a while talking to some of our new found friends. The pub was quite empty, and the only crew that were there were obviously there for the alcohol. I delayed my starting time with a few lemon squashes and eventually got on stage. It felt pretty empty but slowly the room filled out a little bit.
I could really feel my left hand struggling on the guitar. After all of those hours on the bike Harv and I were both still feeling the effects on our hands. My left and was week and it was a real effort to get through some of the songs. And some of them I had to change because it was physically not possible to play with the condition of my hand. In some moments it felt like it was cramping up, and just felt kinda grose.
But I got through the show ok, and after a while a few people showed up who were really appreciative of the music. Including one girl who seemed to know all the words to my songs. Another old bloke spent his time dancing strangely and squealing like a pig. At the end of the show he jumped on stage and asked me if he could squeal like a pig through the mic. It wasn’t to pleasant but I figured it’s the only way he will leave me alone, so he let rip much to the crowds disappointment.
A bit of a chat with some lovely people, and straight to bed. Oh sweet sleep.
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