Caravan Trip Week 7

From Cocklebiddy we drove onto Caiguna where we had a brief stop before driving the 90 mile straight. It is very interesting what you see on the road out in the middle of nowhere ~ love this vintage car travelling across the Nullarbor...

 



Filling up thirsty cars at Caiguna

 We were on the lookout for these water tanks and took a matching photo of Mum and Dad J's car and caravan parked here over 50 years ago!...

 

 

 

We were making good time and decided to continue onto Norseman and not stay at Fraser Range as intended. This was our last night camping with Dad...

 Next morning Dad took the dogs and drove home to Esperance. We headed in the opposite direction to Kalgoorlie. First stop was Widgiemooltha...

 

 

In the 1890's gold was discovered in the town and in 1931 the biggest nugget in Western Australia's goldfields history was found. It weighed 32.2kgs and named the "Golden Eagle" nugget... 





We then continued onto Kalgoorlie, checked in and parked the van then went and met our fellow travelers and friends Ross and Helen and Wayne and Sue. We lunched and chatted for 4 hours about places we have been.  We went for a stroll around the streets and there was an arts festival on. Loved the knitted Where's Wally on the tree...

 

Crochet and knitting on trees

 It was strange not having the dogs in the van with us and we kept feeling like we needed to be treading over them and their bedding ~ but it was so blissful! It had been so long since we had visited Kalgoorlie so we decided to do the touristy thing and have a look around. We went up Mt Charlotte and looked at the Reservoir which marks the end of the Golden Pipeline built between 1898 and 1903.  The pipeline is 560 kms long and was built to pump fresh water from Mundaring Range near Perth to the goldfields. We also enjoyed great views over the mines...   

 We also went to Hammond Park which has great playgrounds and picnic area and bird displays. So nice to see some greenery away from all the dust and dirt of a mining town...

Next up was a visit to the Kalgoorlie Museum at the top of Hannan Street. This was very interesting and from an old mine shaft lookout were great views of Kalgoorlie...

They even had a mini township setup out the back, here we are in a miners cottage...

 

 

We then met Wayne and Sue at the Super Pit just in time to see the end of a "blast". The Super Pit is Australia's largest open cut gold mine and is 3.5km long, 1.5kms wide and 570 metres deep. It is one of those things you need to see to believe!  It was started in 1989 and it is expected that gold mining will finish in 2021...



 The massive trucks look like little ants moving along...

 Us sitting in a loader bucket on display...

 

After spending the afternoon chatting at Wayne and Sue's camp we went and had a classic pub meal at the Exchange Hotel... 







 Then went across the road to the Palace Hotel and looked back at the Exchange Hotel from the balcony...

Next morning we did a quick bit of shopping and had a look at the original Paddy Hannan statue that has now been moved inside as it is so old. A replica is still on Hannan Street where most of my generation would have had a photo with him as kids!...

I love the big wide streets of Kalgoorlie...

 

 

One can only imagine what it would have been like in the gold rush days with so many people chasing the elusive gold nuggets and the trams in the streets.  This photo hangs in the Palace Hotel and is the intersection in the above photo...



 

 

After leaving Kalgoorlie we drove to Boulder and had a wander along the street. It was very quiet and neat with lots of different varieties of Kangaroo Paws growing in the streets...



 We stopped at Norseman for lunch but with thunder and lightning getting closer we decided to get going.

Camel art in Norseman

But this huge storm was moving with us...

 And that storm then joined up with one in front of us...

 And very quickly we were right in the middle an unable to see anything. I was very scared a huge truck would come up behind us and not see us as we had to travel very slow with very low visibility...

 

The rain poured down for the next 2 hours and we eventually made it safely to Esperance and the doggies were very happy to see us again. It rained non stop the whole of the next day. We managed a quick look at the new whale tail and development on the foreshore...



 Janelle had been working for a month with Esperance doctors and she had been having a great time with Lisa and Toby...

 Needing to get the caravan home so we could then travel to a funeral we took a risk and left Esperance. So much rain had fallen over the past few days that many farmers had lost their crops in the great southern area. We just made it through some of the water on the roads in the Dumbleyung area...

 A selfie with the big ram in Wagin...

 

And after 10 hours of driving we were finally home!  Exactly 7 weeks away and 9500kms travelling to all sorts of places. Lots of fun, laughter, arguments, frustration, dirt, dust and wind! But we did it and are already planning our next trip in March.