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Published: September 25th 2018
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I am getting behind with the blogs ... as I move on with my travels , but I am trying to catch up. All this time we are passing through the Great Western Woodlands ...such beautiful trees in an area bigger than England said the sign !!! We were now in the Goldfields and in the big city Kalgoorlie ... You could tell there had been lots of mining money there ... lots of nice stone civic buildings and big hotels / pubs lining the streets. Outside the city is the SUPERPIT ...a huge vast monstrous pit as you look down . And in the tourist mine where Paddy Hannan’s original gold discovery was made you can see both the type of conditions that the miners worked in and the monstrous vehicles which are used in mining today.
This area is known as the Golden Mile , the gold occurs in ore (rock) and these mineralised lodes run through the rock like solid rivers of gold. This is one of the richest finds of gold in the world, laid down 2.6 to 2.9billion years ago.More 1000 lodes have been found some of them more than 1800 m long , 1200
m wide and 10 m deep. And I was interested to learn that of the worlds production 50 % is jewellery , only 10 % in Banks, 10% in technology, 30% investments.
We were staying in a caravan park here which meant showers and laundry and because there was a kitchen I had to make good on a promise to make some drop scones ...they weren’t too bad considering I had to just guess at the ingredients . City life was calling and we got dressed up ( well sort of given our limited camping wardrobe ) went for drinks on the balcony of the York Hotel as the sun went down and dinner at the Palace . And what grand staircases these places had but with warning labels on the bannister not to lean on them in case they gave way !!
Back on the road there were wild goats and emus to be seen ... unlucky for us the coffe machine had broken down when we stopped at Widgiemooltha Roadhouse , they might get the parts in a couple of days ...lucky for us we always had our magic kitchen so coffee stops in the bush
were always available . Onwards and southwards we went and the countryside was changing ...paddocks with wheat and canola and then into the wetlands as we approached the coast ... the Southern Ocean and Esperance. We headed for Lucky Bay in Cap Le Grand National Park . It was soooo beautiful as we arrived and picked our camping spot in the evening light. Little did we know what was in store. We had just finished eating dinner when we felt a few drops of rain ... and hastily got Libby’s little tent down and her bed into my tent... and the storm broke ....what a night !!!! rain and wind all night buffeting the tent , I was convinced tent would have blown away if we weren’t lying in it with all our gear. Even the tent trailer was rocking and swaying from side to side. Did we sleep ?? Well every now and then you felt that you must have dropped off for a few minutes and as soon as it was morning light we were up and packing after making our porridge in the camp kitchen. Hence we renamed the bay Unlucky Bay ! However the wind dropped
a bit and the rain ceased and we could explore and do a bit of walking in this beautiful place.
The reward for surviving this night of the storm was we all agreed that we needed to have proper roof over our heads so it was in to Esperance to find a nice little apartment by the beach.... blissful to lie in a proper bed.
Turning west again along the coast we were definitely on the last leg of the journey.
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Angela Ardington
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magnificent light!
sound like quite an adventure. Not sure this Sydneysider could cope though!