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Free Ride (I wish!)
2nd Time in 2 Weeks - through no fault of our own, we brake down. (I realise that this is long overdue - we were having a breather after a pretty intense few weeks! So here is the next bit of the story … )
We made it all the way across to Norseman - a very small town, but it signified the end of the Nullabor. I started getting really excited when my phone started beeping, messages from the past few weeks were beginning to come through. We made it, and the car kept going!
Kalgoorlie was our intended destination, but the caravan park I wanted to stay at was booked out that night so we stayed at a place called Kambalda, about 50 kms East Of Kal. You can imagine my excitement when I discovered that the washing machines AND dryers were free - we hadn’t washed since Adelaide, so everything we owned went through those machines, at least twice!!! The tariff was really cheap too!
I really loved Kalgoorlie, and could have easily stayed around for a few months - the mining, the boys toys, the money were all extremely enticing. Those big Tonka trucks look like so much fun, and apparently women drivers are in hot demand. 12 hour
shifts, 7 on 3 off roster - in no time I could upgrade the car and the caravan and THEN move on.
What about the kids though, what about my family? We are having such a lovely time hanging out and struggling our way around - what would become of us if I were to be absent for a few months? The whole point of this trip was to spend time together hanging out and getting to know one another again.
I resigned to the fact that the timing probably isn’t good - maybe when I’m finished my degree I’ll return and earn some big dollars for a few years, the kids will be older then.
Anzac day, we headed into Kalgoorlie to visit the museum and the Gold-miners Hall of Fame, on the way in the car died - AGAIN!!! This time I had no tools with me as they were back at the caravan park. There were tons of people around, I thought we’d have no problem getting someone to tow us back to the van.
How wrong I was!!! No-one even so much as looked at us, except for one guy that stopped
The Big SLR
I didnt even know there was such a thing!!! to ask where we’d got fuel from and when I told him he said that he’d bought fuel from the same place and now has $3500 worth of repairs to do on his car. He wasn’t going to help though.
We spent most of the day there, on the side of the road until I finally bit the bullet and rang a tow truck driver to take us back to the van. The first quote was $460 - um, no THANKYOU!!! The second quote was $165, and under the circumstances it was our only option.
Considering my worst fear was breaking down across the Nullabor, and that was an unbelievably amazing experience. My new worst fear is breaking down in suburbia, where people are too busy and preoccupied to give a rats about anyone but themselves.
The problem was the fuel - still the same fuel that I got at Eucla. How annoying!!! We spent the next few days cabin bound while I waited for a new fuel filter to arrive. Dakota and I emptied the tank before fitting the new filter, to see if we could decant some of the gunk out, and what came out
The Earthquake
We arrived the day after the Earthquake and the town of Boulder was closed. Many of the heritage buildings were destroyed :( of it was disgraceful! The upside to all this is that I now know the inside of my car’s fuel system intimately!!!
After all that, we really didn’t get to have a good look around Kal. We did get to the miner’s hall of fame, and did find gold while panning, but I’m hoping to come back here at some stage.
We headed West toward Perth and spent a few days at a mate’s place.
My good childhood mate, Ben, lives and works over here. He happens to have two houses going at the moment - one in Perth and one where he works. After a few days stay with he and his fiancée, he generously offered us his Perth house for as long as we want to stay. Time for a breather I reckon. Stop and gather my wits - get some maintenance done on the car & van before heading North.
Living it up in a plush house was so refreshing after the few weeks that we’d had. The car got a good go over, and some new additions fitted. The van went off to the doctors for some well overdue maintenance - the brake
The Underground Dunny
I wonder how it was ventilated??? cable had been ripped off somewhere back near Cactus beach!?
We took a trip to Freo (Freemantle) Markets and pier, watched the buskers, had picnics in King’s Park, admired the ‘large country town’ kinda feeling of the city.
We spent days in the kitchen cooking up a storm, had time in front of the idiot box (its been ages since we’d seen one), and put in heaps of hours of school work. Put the camera and laptop in for a service (who knows when we’ll have proper services again). I got sorted with wifi broadband which will make life easier when we’re in range of it. We even joined the library and enjoyed being able to borrow books and things - one of the little things you take for granted when at home.
We visited people from the past, and caught up with cousins, some of whom I hadn’t ever met, so that was great. They even made my birthday special with cake and singing and chocolates which was a wonderful surprise!
A few weeks later and extremely well rested, we’re organized (and itching) to move onward and Northward. Ready for our next adventure with both
excitement and a good dose of apprehension at the same time. Who knows what adventures lie ahead ...
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Erin
non-member comment
Wow trudy, what adventures?. Did you go back and yell at the petrol station and demand they fix it?? Was there an Earthquake..? Didn't even hear about it! That piece of gold could have slipped very nicely into a pocket! Love the blog and enjoying hearing about your journey. See you again soon hopefully.