DAY 135 – KALGOORLIE AND THE GOLD FIELDS…..

Feeling a sad as we left Esperance this morning… We are heading to Kalgoorlie today which will be our last stop in Western Australia before heading towards the Nullabor eastward bound…. 

We have loved our stay in this State,  there is just so much to see and do, and such diversity of flora and fauna, as well landscapes and coastlines.  It will be sad to leave, and it is not like we can come back anytime soon as it is so far away from the Eastern States.  

We left Esperance around 8.15am heading north to Kalgoorlie…

Our first stop for the day was at Green Patch for a toilet stop.  This is an interesting little town.  It is located 79 km north of Esperance on the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway. The town was named after a nearby farm of the same name that had been settled around 1896 and was renowned for bountiful crops and good grass.

Whilst Ian and Kathy visited the toilet, Steve and I explored the Lions Park across the road where they had a War Memorial in honor of those from their community who have served in any of the great wars.  

Behind the park, there was a Wheat Loading facility, so we watched them load wheat and stock pile it.  Of course a few photos were taken also. 

It was back in the car again and off heading for Norseman next. 

There are a huge amount of salt lakes along this highway, mostly eating into the countryside around them.  Appartently,  they are growing at an alarming rate daily as they eat into the value farming land around.  (so we were told by the lovely ladies at the information Centre in Norseman)

   There was one particularly pretty lake which actually had some water in it.  It was almost a lime green in colour and had quite a few salt crystals built up in it.  There were some tourists who had stopped to take a photo of it… We missed out, although I am rather sad now that I didn’t get a shot of it. 

Tin camels at Norseman

We stopped at Norseman for morning tea at the Park near the Information Centre.  We drove past the tin camels on our way into town, didn’t stop because I figure we could get photos of them and Norseman Nag when we came back through Norseman on our way across the Nullabor

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Both Steve and Kathy popped into the Information Centre.  These folk are all volunteers and were really helpful with their information about both Norseman and Kalgoorlie, but were feeling a little disgruntled about the fact that they are moving the Information Centre into the main part of town. 

I can’t understand why they would do this, as at the moment they are centrally located in an amazing drive through park, that has wonderful toilets and showers, and water on tap for travellers to fill up as they either arrive or depart town.  They have such good access to travellers in the spot that they are currently at…

We left Norseman around lunch time to drive the rest of the way to Kalgoorlie.

It was a fairly uneventful drive with us arriving there mid afternoon.  We booked into the Kalgoorlie Discovery Park, although it was actually situated in Boulder at the end of their historic main street.  Nice park, but no grass.  The whole park is situated on bitumen, so I would imagine in summer it could be very hot…

One of the things on our to do list in Kalgoorlie was a Mine tour of the Super pit.  Other travelers had told us that we had to book at least 48 hours in advance, so our priority this afternoon after setting up our vans was to drive into the Information Centre in Kalgoorlie and book this tour. 

Paddy Hannan water fountain

Steve having a drink from Paddy Hannan water fountain.

Kathy checking out the gift shop in the Visitors Information Centre Kalgoorlie

 

Ian and Kathy

Steve and I

The girls in the centre were really helpful, not only did they book us in for the Wednesday morning tour, they also highlighted a map of both Kalgoorlie and Boulder with not to miss attractions in the area. 

 

We were happy,  sightseeing sorted for this gold mining town.  First attraction ticked when Steve had his photo taken with the Paddy Hannan drinking fountain statue just outside the information centre.  

By now it was 5.30pm, so before heading home we thought we would go and check out Hammond Park, as it was one of the attractions marked on our map. 

WOW what a lovely lovely park, lush green grass,  wonderful children’s play area, picnic and BBQ areas, bird aviaries, peacocks wandering around, mini castle, café and kiosk, and it was open to the public until 7pm at night.  We wandered around it enjoying the cool evening breeze. 

  

On our way back to our cars, we noticed a community garden which was attached to the park.  Steve wandered over to take a look as there were a couple of people working in the garden. 

  

A lovely lady called Emily let us all into the garden and let us sample some of their vegetables.  The tomatoes were ever so sweet.  It turns out that she is from New York, married a Pakistani who she met on line and they now live in Kalgoorlie, much to her Mum’s distress as they have two beautiful young children, and her Mum misses her grandchildren.  It made me think about how I will feel, once Pete and Maria start a family and our grandchildren will be living on the other side of the world.  

We left here at closing time, and headed back to our vans where we joined to getting for our nightly meal.  This is something we have done our whole trip.