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Published: August 9th 2007
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Gold Anyone
The gold poor at the Mining Hall of Fame in Kalgoorlie. Our trip home took the following route (and for those that have missed it, yes we are home).
Carnarvon, Geraldton, Southern Cross, Kalgoorlie, Roadside stop on the Nullabour, Eucla, Ceduna, Cowell, Adelaide. Over 3000km in 9 days ( 2 nights in Kalgoorlie).
Out of Carnarvon the weather started to turn. Cold, wet and miserable and did not let up at all. Coldest was Kalgoorlie with 1 degrees at night. Lucky we had a gas heater that got the camper nice and warm, until it stopped working. Apparently with all of the dirt we had been on the heater got a bit of dust in it which clogged the valve. After some much pestering from me, it was bloody cold, Bruce pulled the thing apart and much to my relief got it working. So the rest went a bit quite.
A few things about some of the stops.
Geraldton has a great memorial to the HMAS Sydney which was lost off the coast in 1941 with 164 sailors on board. Well worth a visit.
Do not take the main roads from Geraldton to Kalgoorlie. The roads through all the small towns are much nicer and make the long
The Super Pit
The Super Pit in Kalgoorlie. The worlds largest open cut mine. You can just see the large trucks in the distance. day go a lot quicker.
Kalgoorlie is a nice town. The worlds largest Open Pit mine is there, known as the Super Pit. It is right on the edge of town, and if you live close to it, your house rattles every time they do a blast, which is daily. The houses are numbered from 1 starting closest to the pit. So people recommend do not get a house where the number is under 100. They have a observatory over the Super Pit that you can go to. It is great during the day, but even better at night as the trucks have the lights on and it looks really eerie. We visited the Mining Hall of Fame, which showed you all of the mining techniques used in the old days, when Gold was mined under ground. You take a tour under ground and also see how they pour the gold bars. Well worth the entry fee.
Eucla is the last town in WA, only 12km from the SA border. They have some weird time zone of being 45 ahead of Perth, and 45 minutes behind SA. Bit confusing for us still in holiday mode. The night we
Mining for Gold
Amanda using one of the old mining implements to get too the gold. When it turned on it was very loud. were in Eucla was showdown day. And lucky for us it was on the TV in the front bar. But given WA do not ever get live footy it was on TV at 7:30 WA time, game was nearly over in Adelaide by that time. The bar normally closes at 9pm, but they kept it open for us to watch the game, as long as we were still spending money. Bruce was happy to oblige, and got stuck into their port barrel. The port was served by the wine glass, and after 3 he was ticking along very well. It was not worth watching the footy though, even though my team lost, it was a crappy game. So I have not missed much in 3 months there.
After a very slow start to the day we stopped at the Head of the Bight and visited the Whales. There are 31 Whales with calves in the vicinity of the visitors centre there. They come to this secluded spot to give birth in the warmer water. There is nothing between here and Antartica, so they have an easy swim home.
At Ceduna we bought some oysters that had only been
Last Sunset
This was the last Sunset we saw on our trip. It was at an overnight stop on the Nullabor. out of the water a few hours. Great a few days later once Amanda worked out how to open them.
We stopped at Cowell as we caught the Ferry from Lucky Bay to Wallaroo to cut off some of the km’s on the bitumen. It was a very windy day, the swells were about 2m. But the journey was quite relaxing, until we hit Wallaroo (Literally). The trip normally takes 2 hours, and we were inside the harbour at the 2 hour mark, then it took them 45 minutes to try and turn the ship around to dock. It was a drive on, drive off ferry, so it had to reverse into the dock. After being wedged on the wharf, taking 4 coats of paint of the side of the boat, and nearly tipping they finally made it. But no more sailings for a while. They burnt out both the generators that run the impellers and had to get rid of the burnt plastic smell from everywhere.
But we have finally made it home. The house is in great shape thanks to Carena and Nik our house sitters. The cats gave us a bit of a frosty welcome
Great Australian Bight
This was taken at the Head of the Bight where we saw the Whales. but after a few hours we are back to normal. The mail pile was a bit smaller than I expected. You do not realise how much junk you receive through the post, and how many envelopes there are when you open 3 months worth of mail. Lucky we have recycling.
Although it is good to be home, see the neighbours and catch up with friends we are both a bit down at the trip coming to an end. The trip taught us both a lot about Australia, how big and diverse the country is. We are working out how we can make this holiday thing a bit more permanent but looking at the credit card and bank statements that will now take a while.
Thanks for reading our blog, hope you have enjoyed our adventure as much as we have.
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