Following the Pipeline

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Driving into Southern Cross

After much emotional turmoil steve and i pulled outa my drive just after 7 in the morning. somehow everything managed to fit in the van...just. we stopped at midland for petrol (where the prices were 15c difference between bp and caltex!) and then made our way down great eastern hwy towards our first stop - kalgoolie! first break stop was a little town called cundernin, which turned out to contain the cartoon pub...which quite literally looks like its straight from a cartoon! We then pulled into Southern Cross around lunch time...the town of steves childhood and the fisrt thing he said when walking into the palace hotel? "i remember this being a lot bigger" hehe we enjoyed a beautiful aussie lunch of pies chips peas and gravy, before steve gave me the grand tour of the town, including the dirt track that he drove around his car in at 13. i was too scared to go any further bush so he could show me his camping ground...wat if sumthin happened to skip and no one could find us?

we then proceeded towards kalgoolie, stopping once to check out karalee damn...and annoyed that the damn wasnt a little cleaner cos we were both very very hot at this stage. We were braving the whole drive without the aircon, cos skip (skip is our van btw) was getting a little overheated.

we pulled into kalgoolie just before dinner, and quickly cooled down in the pool that they had at kalgoolie caravan park. and the heat didnt let up that nite, as even with the fan neitha of us slept very well we were faaaaar too hot.

the next morning, instead of driving off straight away like we were planning too, we decided to hang around kalgoolie until the arvo, and spent the day checking out the town, the superpit and the end of the pipeline, before joining dayna for lunch at the palace (again, this time the pub in kalgoolie!) We then drove the 30 mins north to Broad Arrow tavern, which was apparently made famous in some movie, and that they give you a pen so that you can write whereva you want on the walls. that and the beer was worth the drive. again, it was a 40C day.

We then drove all the way to balladonia, arriving there quite late around 8pm, and driving without lights for as long as possible, so we didnt attract kangaroos. very very scary. after having a beer at their pub, and watching a dvd on our new dvd player, we settled down for a much cooler nights sleep.

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