fantastic weekend, great company, Awesome man made Gypsum surface that is realllllyyyyy fast.
No wind!
we got a great little sail after the Esperance SC team had gone to the hotel, temps only got down to 0.5 out on the lake so a great night for a swag. day 2 wind still no good , so we headed up to the local hill lookout for some billycart action. sorry I have no photos as wifey had camera , but im sure the boys will put something uo till I get the billycart video uploaded
Esprance SC or ESC stands for Esperance Soft Ccoks. In Esperance, 'swag' apparently means motel room.
Ask Chook for clarification! [}:)]
You can talk Mr Sparkle---Test pilot 1!!!
Yeh we will wear the ESCLSC title, very broad shoulders here.
Had a fantastic time. It was just good to get away for a break, have great company and discuss land sailing at an awesome venue.
The Kalgoorlie boys, Paul was out on the lake giving his "beanie" some air.It is a very stunning head piece.
Mick from Esperance who travelled with me.
Paul demonstrating how comfortable "The Spirit" is.
Late Saturday arvo before the Kal boys set up camp on the "ice" Lake Cowan. Note the full moon which they sailed with that night. We were cuddling our rums in a cosy pub by then though!
Wedgetails machine was very well crafted.
We will definitely be returning to Norseman and look forward to having another run on this gypsum lake. Thanks for nailing us down to a date. It really makes it happen. Ta, Paul and gang.
Sounds like a bunch of fun, especially the Downhill Derby. What part of the lake were you at? The Eyre Highway or the Coolgardi side? and what is this about MAn MAde?? A little history would be nice, particularly from the Local Folks.
Ron
PS: For Chrissake! TP1 Dress properly will you. That is positively disgusting, put me orff me tucker forra week, it will.
the surface we sailed on has had the samphire scraped off ,then soft dune gypsum that has been heated to become" plaster of paris" has been deposited and compacted onto the natural gypsum lake surface. its now very hard, the tyres didnt dig in at all. But when you walk about on the natural surface you can suddenly sink to the ankles . a few years ago I was driving in the area and in the length of 1 short wheelbase vehicle I sank the front righthand wheel to its full height, leaving the opposite wheel in the air. took 6 hrs to get out
Thanks Paul,
OK, So what is Samphire? WIKI describes it as an edible plant. What you are suggesting is that this lake for some reason was deliberately re-surfaced.
Ron
Samphire in the UK is also known as 'poor mans asparagus', very tasty boiled up with a load of butter. Not so sure about the poor bit as it seems to be turning up in cooking shows as some posh side dish!
Puzzled as to why your lake needs a plaster cast though....was it broken? All the gypsum mining I've ever seen involved (1 mine just up the road from where I lived as a child) involved a lot of blasting and whacking great holes in the ground. Some sort of settlement lake?
Cheers Col
Some sort of settlement lake?
Thats the closest so far. Stuff does settle there!!!
Think outside the square and study the photos closely......
Thanks Paul,
Mind you I had to delete my threat to Chook as you got in just prior to my post.
Ron
What they neglected to tell you is the lake surface has been treated in this manner to be an airstrip
Thanks TP1,
That seems like a logical explanation and I know that there are all sorts of hidden airstrips out in the Mulga over your way. Military I believe.
Ron
Gee I thought it was pretty clear with all the runway marker cones in my last photo.
Plenty of runoff area and a disused strip as well.
A pretty typical landyachting weekend really.
No wind for 2 days and then it blows it's tits off on Monday.
We had a fat time anyway.
