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Published: August 26th 2008
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...on the road to Kalgoorlie Another update from us...
In June we had a visit from Mum, over from NZ, and Greg, over from Geelong (near Melbourne). It was great to show them around and take them to some of our old haunts including - the land of love - Kalgoorlie - where Damien and I met!
On their arrival we headed to the Leonardo DaVinci exhibition in Perth which showed replicas of many of his inventions. Watch out for this guy, he’s fairly handy with his artwork and his inventions! I knew about his artistic side, but I hadn’t really realised the extent of his mechanical ideas and how much of modern engineering principles has evolved from ideas he had sketched. What a legend! Damien and Greg (who both love anything mechanical) were in their element.
We had a walk around Northbridge (nightclub central) where we had a motel, and oh how glad I felt to be me on that cold night wearing my flat shoes with comfy jeans, coat and scarf walking passed young lassies with semi-beehives wearing strips of cloth and two-storey high heels shivering in the nightclub que!
Unfortunately we had our car broken into in Perth and
our iPod stolen - I think that was the ONE time we had left it in the car overnight since buying it a couple of years ago! Luckily everything was backed up otherwise we would have lost all of our photos and Damien’s collection of around 10’000 songs - all purchased of course! There was no time to get the side window fixed before leaving Perth so we planted Greg next to the taped up window and drove 6 hours to Kalgoorlie! Well he did insist on taking that seat!
Six hours is a long drive when the scenery outside is gumtree after gumtree, however it seemed to go by quite quickly - I think every topic of conversation was covered and the handful of CDs left by the thief (including old time crooners such as Bing Crosby especially chosen for the trip), and the Women’s Day crossword provided some light entertainment!
In Kalgoorlie we wanted to provide an authentic experience for Mum and Greg, seeing as they had heard so much about it over the years. We took them to the notorious pub ‘The Exchange’ to introduce them to the world of skimpies! However the girls were
Superpit
Mum and Greg in toga dress so they were spared the details! Damien and Greg took on a couple of merry young lads in pool. Both Mum and Greg ended up getting a heroes farewell from the boys when they left!
On another night Damien and I left Mum and Greg at a pub for an hour next to a restaurant in Boulder (twin town with Kal) we had been at while we went to visit some old friends - AJ and Dion. On our return we heard stories of how an older skimpy lassie (in slightly less than a toga!) had climbed the pole beside the bar and turned upside down on the pole only to slide back down upside down! Both of them were very….impressed! They had also started making mates with the locals by the time we got back, so I’m sure we could have lost them to mining town forever had we not come back when we did.
We visited the mighty ‘Super Pit’ owned by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and toured into the mine on a minibus with the driver watching for the huge dump trucks carrying soil to the processing plant. These trucks carry 240
ton and are huge. Each load of soil contains a pea size worth of gold! The amount of soil processed in the strict timeframe makes it profitable for the mining company - so time (e.g. mechanical breakdowns, wet weather which slows production) = money. When I first saw the superpit after 10years my jaw dropped at the mammoth size it had increased to - and they still have at least another 20 or so years to go before the lease is up for renewal again. The dumpie trucks look minute within the pit. Quite amazing.
We tried our luck panning for gold at the Miners Hall of Fame and also took a trip out to the Broad Arrow Tavern where we searched for the names Glen, Damien and I had written 10 years earlier and added Mum and Greg’s names. We also taught Mum to play pool which was very cute!
Mum and Greg took a spin to The Hillaries boat harbour in Perth which is like a shrine to the wealth created by the resources boom. Million dollar houses and luxury launches a plenty. Mum was amazed by it all. We also took them to our favourite
hang out - Fremantle - and our favourite coffee shop - Long Mac.
All in all a fantastic trip - hopefully we’ll have them and more visitors here again soon!
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