Day 63 - 66 The Golden Mile

Anyhow, let's continue with this story after our brief stop in Perth, to deliver a couple of Kimberley Mangoes ( just about ripen after one month on the roof rack), my dear schoolmate of 55+ years standing from Canada, was grinning from cheek to cheek.......

We left Perth the same day in the late afternoon, so as get to our campsite marked on the map as Xmas Tree Well just as cloud was gathering on the horizon.  Rain was definitely on the cards, it had to be, this 61 consecutive days of good weather had to end. So it did, we had our first rainy night. Fortunately, our camping gears stood up to the challenge.

We headed southeast towards the Wave Rock in the rain, but when we saw a Dog Cemetery on the road, it was a good time to take a break to see how man's best friends are remembered.

Wave Rock is a must visit in this part of Western Australia, and fortunately for us, the rain stopped as we got in.

The next morning we rolled into a town, which I have a fair bit of memories, Kalgoorlie, the gold diggers town of the west.  

Kalgoorlie evokes a lot of memories, as I flew into this town a number of times to install a piece of high tech scientific equipment, nearly 40 years ago. the first of its type to be used in a mining environment in the World.  On the first day, the laboratory's roof was opened to install a new exhaust chute for the equipment. I asked the Chief Chemist as we left for lunch, to have the roof closed up.  No, it does not rain in Kalgoorlie, and it was a blue sky day, he chuckled.  And it was a mega disaster too, when Mr Murphy decided to have his fun. Only few drops of shower came down as we walked back from the pub.... need I say more! 

And the street that lined the one-lady cubicles still has them, except that now it is the Pink House or the Red House, very legal and regal.

 

Kalgoorlie, now a modern town, still boasts one of the top 10 Gold Mines in the World.....the Super Pit, a gigantic big hole that is still a big export earner for this lucky country. 

We also visited the terminal of the great Goldfield Water Supply Scheme, which was devised 120 years ago to pipe potable water from Perth, 600 Km away, to this dry gold field region, and it is still in operation today, we can see the big white pipe behind the bushes as we drove along the highway.

And of course, no golfer can ignore the longest golf course in the World, the Nullarbor Links, a par 72, 18 hole course that spans nearly 1400 Km.  Hole 1 & 2 ( or 18th & 17th, depending on which direction one starts), is here in Kalgoorlie.  We would be following this golf link as we traverse the Great Nullarbor Plain eastwards.

After a couple of days in Kalgoorlie to dry up, and have the car serviced....quite a lot of mileages since a month ago!, and a few visits to Woolies to stock up on fresh foods, we headed south to seek tee # 3 & 4 before we arrived at Esperance.  Tee 3 is at Kambalda & 4 at Norseman, about 130 Km apart.  After the manicured fairways & championship greens at Kalgoorlie Gold Club, these are, might I say, a little different...featuring dry parched fairways, boasting evergreen matted greens at Norseman, and coal dusted green at Kambalda. And let those rabbit holes swallow the ball, right in the middle of the fairway.

You are invited to view David's photo album: 2011 4x4 Outback Trip (The Golden Mile ) 2011 4x4 Outback Trip (The Golden Mile ) Oct 17, 2011 by David View Album Play slideshow Message from David: Commencing our journey eastern thrust towards home, through the Gold Miles of Kalgoolrie. Camped next to a couple of bush graves due to the delays in finding a non-exitent track out of the sand dunes of Cape Arid Nat. Park on the map. Played along the Longest Golf Course of the World, but forgot to bring the clubs. If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Australia.dt&target=ALBUM&id=5875047235409955745&authkey=Gv1sRgCOnxga_ytfCyGQ&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

Esperance is a nice little seaside town, just west of the Great Australia Bight, we had a great time having an afternoon drive along its ocean drive into the western sunset. But it is the access to Cape Arid National Park, which attracted us to Esperance.  We headed into Cape Arid, riding on its myriad sand dunes till we hit the oceans of the Great Australian Bight. Finally

In view of the time, as we wanted to get to Balladonia Roadhouse on the Eyre Highway for the night.  Unfortunately, we wasted two hours searching at the edges of  a huge salt pan, for a track that was clearly marked on the map, ....and none was found.  It is definitely a mistake on the map, or the track has been buried over time due to lack of use....just goes to tell how remote an area it is.  Finally, we detoured to another track which added another 50 Km.

When the sun began to set, we were still some 100 Km from Balladonia, so I called it a day, and lay our tent on a flat ground in the bushes....not telling Julia, that only a stone throw way, are two lonely graves.  One is of Jim McCoy in 1890, of sickness and the other, of August Kolodzeit, of exhaustion in 1895.

The night was pleasant and quiet.