It’s raining, it’s pouring, the Marketos family is soaking

---

We are in Kalgoorlie, having arrived here last Friday, just in time for a torrential downpour on Saturday, which again soaked our living room (aka our awning area). Fortunately, Paul’s repair job on the leaking skylight held fast and our caravan remained dry. We don’t seem to be lucky on the weather front, but I was chatting to some fellow German travellers whom we originally met in Esperance and caught up with again here, and they said that, cyclones aside, this unusual rainy weather pattern is set to last for at least this year, and may continue even into next year. The reason? From what I could understand, the Pacific Ocean has of late been two degrees higher, and this, combined with unusually cold weather in north Australia and beyond, has clashed to create these wonderful storms we are experiencing. To add insult to injury though, today is our first hot day in ages, and we have just spent the morning washing bedding, cleaning and drying awning, etc etc. The joys of caravanning.

Having said all that, it really hasn’t been all that bad, and we have been making the most of the inclement weather. So, to backtrack a bit, we spent some time in Esperance after having left Jinjinnup. The caravan park we ended up with was small and compact, across the road from the waterfront and a skateboard park, much to Oliver’s delight, as well as a lake, which caused me great joy as I could offload an unfortunate hitch hiker - a frog which had found its way into our caravan. I hope it survives!

We were also right in front of the harbour and alongside the caravan park ran the train tracks, which caused quite a stir, especially when the boys saw how long the trains were - I think one train we counted had more than 50 carriages, all carrying ore to the wharf. Hearing them through the night though was not always so fantastic, but it added to the atmosphere. Anyway, not to harp on about the storms, but Saturday was the day of our ‘big flood’, so that day was spent mopping up, and trying to fix leaks etc. Am becoming steadily even more impressed with Paul’s handyman skills! Sunday gave us a glimpse of sunlight, which we took full advantage of by exploring the beaches of Esperance (the coastline of Esperance has been described as the most beautiful in Australia). The beaches were beautiful (though we all still think Bremer Bay was better…) and we spent a lovely couple of hours exploring Salmon Beach, which had lovely rocks to sit on and take corny photos.

With inclement weather over the next few days, a lot of time was spent on the foreshore, with the boys riding their bikes and Oliver practising tricks on his scooter. As a result, Quinton is now proudly riding his bike sans training wheels. Paul took them to buy their obligatory bicycle helmets, which cost more than four times the cost of the bikes (which we found in Albany for $10 each at a Lions garage sale!) We also walked down Tanker Jetty, where we saw a large sealion lying on the sand. One of the many fishermen along the jetty kindly gave us a fish to give to the sealion, which William had to carry, still alive and flapping, about 200 metres back down the jetty. Both the sealion and William seemed appreciative of the gesture (though William was a bit unsure about the fish, particularly when it started spurting out water and its eyes starting bulging!) We would have liked to visit the Recherche Archipelago to see the dolphins, sealions, seals etc, but the weather was never suitable.

Perhaps the highlight of our time in Esperance was following Paul’s suggestion to climb Frenchman Peak, a 3km return trek. Frenchman Peak is an impressive granite rock outcrop which, at its peak, is 262 metres high. Situated in Cape Le Grand National Park, a hike up Frenchman Peak was the perfect challenge to do in so-so weather. And it was worth it. First to see our Mighty Quinn climb up all by himself, and secondly to see the view and explore the caves at the top. The National Park is also very well known for its beaches (and one can apparently expect to see kangaroos sunning themselves on the beach, which despite high expectations we did not see) so we decided to visit one of them. Lucky Beach was really beautiful, and despite the cold, Paul and Oliver ventured into the water to body surf and boogie board. There was a lovely caravan site there (not part of any chain, but set up by the parks board - had the weather not been so crap we would have moved home immediately and set up camp there for a week or so).

We also met a family from South Australia who are taking a year out to travel around the country. Emma and Travis, with their children Tyson (10), Natalie (8) and Oliver (4) are travelling clockwise around Australia, but we hope to perhaps catch up with them up north and perhaps do part of the Gibb River trek with them (travelling in convoy, with tents not caravans, is perhaps the best way to do this, but we’ll see what comes of it…)

With the weather man forecasting more rain, we decided to leave Esperance and go to Kalgoorlie, famous for its gold rush history and, we hoped, to get some sunshine. Kalgoorlie is still an active mining town, which intrigued the boys, who all had visions of striking gold! Despite the rain, we headed out to visit the Super Pit Mine on Saturday afternoon. This is the biggest open pit mine in Australia where more than 800,000 ounces of gold is produced every year. This massive hole is 3.5 kms long and 1.5 kms wide (or, to put it in perspective, it is as deep as Uluru - formerly known as Ayers Rock - is high, and as wide). Oliver and William immediately started fossicking in the car park, and the ever patient William did upturn a couple of rocks which looked like they might have gold (though it is more than likely Fool’s Gold, or pyrites.)

Over 100 years ago, a pipeline was built to bring water 700km from Perth to Kalgoorlie. All the steel for the project was brought out in sheets from England by boat. Amazing what people will do to get their hands on gold! And to think that most of it, once dug up, goes straight back into underground vaults!

That evening we heard there was a free outdoor concert in the park, so we made a picnic dinner and went to Centennial Park. What a lovely evening it turned out to be. It was a Beatles tribute evening, and we all danced to every song (and Paul and I were amazed to discover that we pretty much knew the words to every song…) It was a most enjoyable night.

Sunday I had a bit of a lie in while Paul took the boys to visit the Gold Museum. Well, at least it was supposed to be a lie in for me, until the rain became quite heavy, and I looked out the window to see my shoe floating down the road! Needless to say, I leapt out of bed and started rescuing all our worldly possessions, and not a minute too soon. That afternoon we visited some secondhand shops to see if we could also find Oliver a cheap bike, but no luck. What we did buy though was the complete first season of Bewitched, and we all cuddled up that afternoon on our bed/couch and had a few laughs.

We also visited the Mining Hall of Fame which kept us busy for a whole day. We were able to go underground to see Kalgoorlie’s original gold mine. We also saw a gold pour demonstration and then the boys spent ages panning for gold, sadly without much success, though Paul did find the tiniest pinprick of gold which is now on a piece of cellotape! We saw some fascinating documentaries, and were very thankful that we were not born in the era of the gold rush. What a hard life! Many many thousands of hopeful gold diggers died either on the way to a gold rush (the heat, lack of water, and total inexperience of bush life killing them), while at the site, booze or dehydration killed them (or a rival digger), and then there are the tragic many who died on their way back to civilisation, pockets full of gold, but again, no water or protection from the searing heat.

What Paul and I have found very intriguing here is that there is still that atmosphere of pioneering spirit. At the camp site are a number of people who have journeyed to Kalgoorlie seeking work, lured by the prospect of employment on the mines. Our tent-dwelling neighbour sold his ailing business in clothing retail, jumped into his car and headed across the Nullarbor from NSW. His long-term aim, as with others we’ve met, is to pilot one of the giant dump trucks (at $60 per hour) or an excavator ($85 per hour). After just a week here, doing temp work, he has struck gold, being offered a full-time job as a safety inspector.

Our other neighbour, Greg, lives with his family and complete Elvis collection in a 1970, Jolly Roger-emblazoned bus. He is full of the joys of life, having landed a job with the RAC for $30 per hour - more than he has ever earned before. Says he will never again live in a house. Their bus has a huge trailer on which they can tow his motorbike and their Suzuki 4WD. One of my impressions so far is that the rougher-looking the people we meet the friendlier they are.

Tens of thousands of Australians are actively involved in prospecting. Swinging their metal detectors, they scour the desert hinterlands, searching for nuggets buried a metre or so beneath the surface. Evidently the full-time prospectors typically earn around $80 000 per year.

Tonight after I semi-successfully cut Quinn and William’s hair, we went to a restaurant up the road for an all you can eat dinner. Passing through the pub to get there, I somehow failed to notice the barmaid’s ‘uniform’ which Alexa subsequently pointed out to me. I suppose skimpy pink lingerie would be the best way of describing it. You gotta love mining towns!

Tomorrow we head off across the Nullarbor Plain. As its name suggests, there won’t be many trees and it’s a long way to go! Will post next most likely from Streaky Bay in South Australia.

(PS there are 73 photos uploaded - click on the next button to see the remaining photos).

---

Photos

1. Mining Family, hoping to strike gold weather-wise at least!)
PS - guess why Alexa thought the mine was really dark!

Comments

[Justine]

Loving Your Adventures
Hi guys, absolutely loving your blogs. What an adventure...and the rain is bound to stop some time! All good here in SA, missing you. x

[Raj]

Enjoying the blog every bit. Keep em coming