Homes OZ Adventure: August 2012

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Day 65: Tourist Day Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Tuesday 28/08/2012 Day 65: Tourist Day Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Amanda & Amy dropped Ryan & Les off at the tour place on Hannan St Kalgoorlie at 09:00. They then caught up on groceries & laundry. Ryan & Les spent 2 ½ hours inside the KCGM Mine. It was a happy Father’s day present for Les. We then grabbed lunch at “chicken treat” and headed off to watch the 1PM mine blast at Trafalgar. Amy was disappointed with the size of the controlled blast. The kids expected something a lot bigger and were surprised at the lack of noise and minimal size of the dust cloud. We then headed down to Burt St and visited the KCGM Shop to look at the 3D model of the final size of the Superpit in 2021. Amanda and Les visited the Metropole Hotel and got to see the mine shaft under the public bar. Amanda dropped some loose change down the pipe into the Miners bucket for the “old bastards charity”. We had a quick look inside the Boulder Town Hall. We then went through the West Australian Museum on Hannan St. Amanda enjoyed the photo of the “first bathers club” from the late 1800’s. We have enjoyed walking up & down Hannan St Kalgoorlie & Burt St Boulder. The aftermath of the April 20^th 2010 earthquake can still be seen by the scaffolding and cracks in the buildings. Kalgoorlie & Boulder are very clean & tidy towns.

Daily Stats: Distance: 67km, Duration: 7hrs30min, Weather: Fine, Windy & Warm.

View from Public Lookout at Controlled Explosion.

Metropole Hotel

Boulder Town Hall

West Australian Museum

Discovery Caravan Park Boulder

Day 64: Esperance to Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Monday 27/08/2012 Day 64: Esperance to Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Early morning rain. We woke up to cloudy skies and a cool breeze. The Esperance Bay was now gray. We packed up and headed off in light drizzle. The weather got nicer as we got closer to Norseman. We passed through some little towns and by some salt lakes. The windscreen took out a squadron of gnats. At the driver change-over at Norseman, we used good old coles windex and a paper towel and Amanda was able to see clearly. The roads got better as we passed a dozen mines, some getting road works to improve the turn in for the road-trains. We set up at Discovery Caravan Park Boulder, the sites are big, toilets and showers are “American size”, lots of grey nomads, lucky we booked our site yesterday, the park filled up very quick. Had a quick lunch and off to Kalgoorlie 4km’s away. We confirmed our Superpit tour and wandered around Town. We picked up a pick & magnet for the Nullabor trip. Les enjoyed passing some “skimpys” girls (very popular in mining pubs), near the Exchange Hotel. We had a look at Mt Charlotte and the Water Reserve built by O’Connor. The Superpit lookout is pretty cool – “it’s a big thing when you look into it”. Bondy must have been pretty smart to get all the claims together to mine the area as one operation. It Reminded Les of the Kevin Bloody Wilson song “Living next door to Alan”.

Daily Stats: Distance: 396km, Duration: 4hrs30min, Weather: Fine, Windy & Warmed Up.

Seafront Caravan Park Esperance

Norseman

Dry Lake Bed

Railway

View from Mt Charlotte

Kalgoorlie

Underground Shaft Vent

View from Public Lookout of the Superpit

Still needs refining.

Trafalgar - preparation for tomorrows blast.

Long way down

Sunday 26 August 2012

Day 63: Tourist Day Esperance.

Sunday 26/08/2012 Day 63: Tourist Day Esperance.

Well another night without rain. It was cool this morning as we caught up on some laundry; this was the cheapest of all washing machines so far at $2 per load. We packed lunch and headed off to Cape Le Grand National Park. We visited Rossiter Bay, Lucky Bay, Thistle Cove & Hellfire Bay where we had lunch & Ryan caught a tiny flathead. We went up to Frenchman Peak and finished off the NP at Cape Le Grand Beach. The beaches were all spectacular, Rossiter Bay’s sand was like coarse salt & Lucky Bay’s sand was like fine powder and squeaked as you walked on it. The wildflowers were all on display. And the water was turquoise on top of the white, white sand. We went and had a look at the Eastern side of Bandy Creek Harbour and then strolled along Tanker Jetty where Sammy was frolicking in the water begging for bait scraps. The wind changed from an Easterly to a Westerly as we walked along the Jetty and it nearly blew us off. We came back to the caravan park organised the next few days and then took Ryan & Les fishing back to Bandy Creek Harbour. Amy & Amanda were hoping to see the Dolphins but they must have eaten all the fish yesterday.

Daily Stats: Distance: 255km, Duration: 7hrs0min, Weather: Fine, Windy & cold.

Cape Le Grand National Park
Rossiter Bay