Day 146-147 Kalgoorlie & around

After the colder days on the coast, it is time to head back inland to Kalgoorlie to explore the town and area around. On the drive towards Kalgoorlie we were surprised by a pilot vehicle announcing an oversize road train (not rare or unusual) and the road train in front of us drove off the street, which we have never seen before. Then an escort police car with lights on went passed us and the car in front of us also drove off the street. We by then thought, they probably know more than we do, so also drove off the street. Well, it was a good idea given the road trains arriving seconds later from the bend: two big road trains carrying parts for mining vehicles used almost all of the available street. After this incident the car in front of us drove on, but had not secured its load properly, so that a lollipop "Stop"/"Slow" sign from construction sites was pulled off the back of the car into the air and on the street. We managed to slow down, drive around and up to this car, attracting their attention, so they at least pick up this sign of the street before another car or campervan will get damaged. We arrived safely in Kalgoorlie but decided to move all sightseeing to the next day and only organise petrol & food for the days.

The next day we followed an old historic sites drive up to Menzies. Well, as already the first stop which was supposed to have a lively pub etc. was only a vacated pub and an overnight camp (Broad Arrow) we decided it is not worth driving the detours but drove on the Menzies directly. In Menzies there were quite a few old houses, sights, signs, old tractors etc., so Stuart enjoyed this city walk very much.

Then we drove the detour to Kookynie, "the living ghost town" - well, we didn´t see much alive except many, many flies, but there were ruins of houses along an otherwise empty gravel street. We also drove the detour to the Niagara Dam, which was once build to hold back water and for a train to drive over but was actually never really used or required, as there was not much water. The stop was good for a nice walk and good views on the dam and surrounding area, but with all the flies around we left pretty soon and understood why the big camping area was almost completely empty.

Then we drove on to Lake Ballard to see Antony Gormley's “Inside Australia” statues. The lake is a dry salt lake and there is no shade and almost no wind, but lots of flies around again. Luckily the ground was dry though, because exploring the statues on mud would have been annoying. There are 51 statues over 20km, but seemingly they are all kind of the same (man o woman) statues, so after walking around to a few statues we decided to walk up the hill for some lookout views instead. The walk up this little hill is pretty steep, but the views are amazing.

After exploring the lake, we drove a different way back to Kalgoorlie past some "old historic town sites" where nothing except the sign was visible. In the town of Coolgardie Stuart woke up and found in a museum area a big gold nugget at which he starred and wanted us to steel it. We walked along the main road to have a look at the old buildings and then persuaded Stuart to come back to Kalgoorlie where we would visit the Super Pit Kalgoorlie Lookout. This lookout gives some impressive views on the mining with all the huge machines and noise operating down there. The tyres and the big shovel gave us an impression how big everything is down in the mine looking tiny from the lookout.