Day 141 12th September 2014 Friday. I took the empty gas bottle into Bunnings at 8am but they advised they no longer did refills and the only place in town was BBQ Galore. So to fill in time I went and filled the car up with fuel and then went down to the foreshore area and parked the car and went for a 30 min walk past the caravan park and along Castletown Cr. Some really nice houses looking out over Esperance Bay. Stopped at Tackle World to get some bait and then onto BBQ Galore. When I got back we packed a lunch and took off to do the Great Ocean Drive along the coastline to the west of town. Stopped at the Rotary Lookout on Wireless Hill that gave great views 225 Degrees of coast line. I was astounded by how blue the waters were. The beaches & coastal scenery were spectacular. Twilight Cove/Beach (2006 Australia’s best beach) was a WOW factor. We climbed the stairs to Observation Point and looked out over the Recherche Archipelago’s (105 offshore islands spread along the coast east of Esperance). We saw several whale’s frolicking as we came to Nine Mile Beach. They were only 200m offshore and Dad had the binoculars glued to his eyes. We turned around at the wind farm and came back to Salmon Beach where we had lunch and threw a salmon line in. I got one rock cod of some sort and finally landed a 37cm Australian Salmon. It was thrilling to again catch a decent size fish. Dad was not so lucky and didn’t get anything. We had to rush off as I had a chiro appointment. We then went to Woolies to get some nuts for dad’s birthday tomorrow. Mum and dad settled in to watch the footy Geelong v North Melbourne while I started tea. Butterflied Lemon Chicken on the weber. Yum. Well at 5.30 disaster struck and the smoke alarm sounded. WTF I was saying as I fanned it with the tea towel to quieten it. I looked around and out the kitchen window I saw flames leaping up. The weber was well alight as I came outside yelling fire fire. I turned the gas point off and the guy next to mum and dad came and helped move the table to outside the awning. I then used the fire extinguisher to put the fire out. The plastic side table and the controls and part of the plastic framework had completely melted to a black pile on the table. On the good side the chook was alright and I quickly put it in the oven to finish cooking. It could have been a lot worse and thank god for insurance. I will need to ring them on Monday, again. What an exciting evening. Bad luck that Geelong didn’t win.
