Woo Hoo its the Choo Choo (Part ll)

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27/10/2014



The complaints department at Kangaroojack's travel Blog Inc, had received a complaint from a reader who said that we had not published Woo Hoo its the Choo Choo (Part ll)

which astonished us, so in true form we never break a promise, JD we hope you enjoy it.





I woke at 04.45 and just stared at the windows until the sun came up, it was unfair to disturb Caroline, so I dressed as quietly as I could and as she stirred I said I was going to Macca’s for a cup of coffee and do some of the blog, I did hear the words “bring me back a coffee”.



The morning was absolutely beautiful and by the time I strode out it was about 05.20, the morning was warm and absolutely stunning, I knew the day was going to be 27 Degree’s a lot cooler than yesterday but we are not even in Australian summer time yet I walked past a couple of signs that said detour, yet I could not see why there was any reason for it so I walked on and after a short while arrived at Macca’s.



At Macca’s I was too early for a McCafe coffee as the lady said they didn’t open until 6, 25 minutes to wait was no problem so I sat down in the Sunshine of the window and typed away and I managed to finish and publish the blog Hurray for Toodyay, Pronounced (Too-Jay)



I ordered my coffee and it arrived and it was worth the wait, it was only six o ‘clock so new I had a good hours window of work in front of me before I needed to get back and disturb Caroline.



I walked back with a takeaway skinny flat white for Caroline, with a sugar in my pocket, and as I was just 100 metres from our motel there was a very large crane just at the point where the detour signs had been placed and it was in the middle of slewing around as it had just picked up an enormous palm tree, as I had my iPhone with me and not my camera I managed to take a couple of shots of the large tree being loaded on to a low-loader.



Caroline called me and I explained where I was and what happening and she said she would get dressed and hurry out, but I said it wouldn’t be worth it as the tree was loaded and I thought it would be heading off to its new destination pretty soon, what she really wanted to know was where her coffee was.



The night before we had all agreed to meet for breakfast for 9.00am for our complementary buffet style English breakfast, which was going to come in handy as we were back on the train today and returning back to Perth, so I knew we needed some sustenance inside us before the long journey home.



After breakfast we ordered a maxi taxi to take us in to Boulder, a suburb next to Kalgoorlie as we wanted to have a walk around and see some of the buildings. it was great to walk around in the sunshine and enjoy the environment.



We have been here twice before and never took the time to wander slowly and take it all in at such close quarters.



In 2010 Boulder was hit by an earth quake that badly damaged some of the gorgeous buildings, some were still under repair and still had scaffolding around them, if you look at the pictures some of the buildings are just so architecturally amazing and do need preserving, what you need to accept that Australia is not an old country as far as architecture goes, compared against countries like the UK for example.



So we walked around Boulder and found our way in to this odd little pub in the main street which was just by a traffic roundabout and guess what was in the middle of this traffic roundabout, yep I hope you guessed it, it was the palm tree that had been removed this morning from up by our digs in Kalgoorlie, a lady road worker was just doing something and I asked her if this was the exact same tree and she acknowledged that it was, she said the old one was loved by the Cockies (Cockatoo’s) too much and they had pecked an enormous hole in the trunk so the old Palm Tree had become fragile and had to go.



We wandered into the pub, well it was 11 0’clock and everyone was inside as the day was hot and I guess we deserved a beer, though only a small one. Inside we see a small section of floor has a glass panel, it revealed an old mineshaft underneath the pub, it was so deep you couldn't see the bottom, well it was dark down there too! I am not sure when the mineshaft showed itself, but it probably means that we truly have no idea how riddled Karlgoorlie-Boulder is with hidden mineshafts from days of the old gold rush



Once our whistles where wetted we moved on again, looking at the buildings and generally having fun, our target time that we needed to be back at the motel to collect our luggage was 1.30 as the train went at 2.00pm.



It was quite a busy day in Kalgoorlie, everybody seemed out and about and we needed to get some train provisions and stuff like that before our epic journey back (well seven hours)



Caroline wanted a MacDonald's chicken salad to take back with her for the journey so we had to walk over to the golden arches to get what she wanted.



With everyone satisfied, we got back and picked our luggage up on time, it had been kept safely in a locked room, it was just a case of grab and go and take a leisurely 4 minute walk to the station.



The train that we came into town on was the one that we were going back on, the train was there all night, so we knew we would be on it, the train personnel counted us in and we got back in to Car 1, near the buffet car should we need it and we pulled away spot on time at 2.10pm, we sat on the opposite side this time to give Andy and Karen the opportunity to see a different aspect of the journey as we had sat on the opposite side on the journey to Kalgoorlie. This train is full tonight, there is not one single spare seat.



It was great to be back on the train,as we could watch the amazing country side go by in a different perspective which was great, until it got dark anyway.



The train only stops at the very small stations if they have been pre-booked for people to get off or get on, when I say stations this is a bit of a stretch on words as it is more like a sign in the middle of nowhere, may be with a light to illuminate the sign, (MAY BE NOT), we had witnessed a guy getting off the train, the train came to a stop and he got off, all we could see were the head lights of a car that was waiting for him and we were literally in the middle of nowhere.



Our half way journey back was complete, we pulled in to Meriden at about 5.45 for a 10 minute stop, we got off to stretch our legs and just have a walk around, but soon we were being ushered back on the the train as they did not wait if you were late, it would go without you.



The second half of the journey was in darkness and we arrived at about ten past nine, we all grabbed our cases and walked out in to the cool evening air and waited for our taxi.



It was only half an hour until we were being dropped off at Andy and Karens, where jack was parked, we had had a really fantastic weekend away and were looking forward to booking the next adventurous weekend away.



Until Next Time.



Kj

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Comments

[SkiSet]

Woo Hoo It's the Choo Choo (Part II)
Pleased to see that the complaints department at KangarooJack Inc is sympathetic to the avid followers of its blog and that the request for Part II has now been fulfilled. It's completion is true testimony to the honesty and integrity we have come to expect from such a champion blogger and is also true justification to KangarooJack that its followers do actually read and take note of their travels. Great photos too ... Well done!!