There is only one way east from Esperance, go north, so north we went through Gibson Soak, with its charming old bus pub, and Salmon Gum, a favoured caravan park with many, unfortunately throughout this region can be seen the devastation from the November 2015 bushfires that wrought so much damage to bush and properties. Our destination on the north passage is Norseman, 200klm north of Esperance, and here we find ourselves once more in mining country evidenced by the large mine and tailings which abuts the township. Australia's longest running gold mine this be, operated by Norseman Gold PLC.

All the signs of a prosperous gold town are here, or perhaps best described as "still here but decaying" . The township is as neat as any we have passed through, a large roundabout on the towns main intersection has a new, modern sculpture of a camel team portrayed in corrugated steel. Circling this from the highway we turn into a town street which intersects the Main Street, site of the Info Centre and a block of strip shoppingu area complete with a grand old hotel at the bottom end. A walk down the strip reveals mainly closed shops, Windows covered by board or corrugated. The essentials are still there, pub, pharmacy, a great IGA of a size belied by the exterior as it has taken over several of the boarded up adjacent shops, oh, and a café owned by some young Thai people. As is our custom to leave a few dollars in the towns we pass through we had a sandwich in the café and topped up the pantry from the IGA.

Here at Norseman we turn right, east at last and begin our Nullarbor Odyssey. The road is wide bitumen, even with a metre spare either side, fairly straight but at this western end with quite a degree of undulations as we travel through low rolling hills covered by the largest Eucalyptus forest in the world . On the occasional crest of a rise the vista from horizon to horizon is the green canopy of this vast forest.

About 80klm east of Norseman is a large cattle property that has a small caravan park and huts, Fraser Range Station. Rated very well by Wikicamps and fellow travellers we take the turnoff and 2klm of good gravel road to the camp compound. The place is lovely, a broad flat plane dotted with the most beautiful Pepper Trees with their distinctive bright light green leaves and strands of pink peppers hanging in abundance. We pull up under three of these shade givers outside the office that occupies a wonderful small rough stone building with windows of 4 small glass panes and a steep pitched roof providing shade all round. The manager, a thin, tanned bushie with a weathered face offers a real country welcome and soon has us off to pick our own site, with power and water....sweet.

The camp area holds about 18 vans and provides a big enclosed fire pit, camp BBQ's, amenities block (particularly clean and modern) . Adjacent is an accommodation area with a set of somewhat modern "dongas", an quaint old staff quarters in a similar fashion to the office that has 6 bedrooms, a large Dining Room and kitchen where a set menu is available each evening, and the most wonderful Camp Kitchen set in another old stone building with a high ceiling, chandeliers of wagon wheels and bare bulbs, pots, pans and other implements hanging from a wagon wheel above a centre timber bench. All this is set in a hectare or so and whatever is not covered by buildings or road is planted with native blooming shrubs of a multitude of colour or the beautiful Pepper Trees with their Willow like branches of leaves.

We declined dinner as Evi had already prepared a Thai Chicken Salad dish which we both love, however, we did take it to the Camp Kitchen to eat, along with a bottle of wine and a few beers, just to soak up the ambience. After we returned to the Lotus Inn and laid back our camp chairs to spend a few hours just watching a brilliant display in the heavens on this moonless and clear night . It was literally heaven, the Southern Cross low on the horizon leading into the Milky Way in a SE to NW sweep of brilliance. Whiskey in hand, we watched satellites on their hurried journey and the occasional shooting star as it burst into the atmosphere.

Early morning and we donned our trekking boots and clothes, hoisted a backpack (Roscoe the Sherpa did at least) and headed off on a two hour hike to "The Summit" of a large hill adjacent to the camp that affords a superb view of the Fraser Range and surrounding vast Eucalyptus forest. The walk took us along the eastern side of the steep hill then up a natural incline which turned back on itself to appear on a flat platform which runs around half the hill. From this platform it becomes somewhat a scramble up an indistinct path strewn with small boulders and much uneven footing till you once more come to a second platform that is hidden from below. The peak, if we call it that, is more of a conical hill upon this high platform and though not steep, every step is on uneven ground. For our trouble we get to sign a book found in an old microwave oven protruding from a large cairn of rocks. What goes up, happily goes down. Time to move on!