Bunbury – Kwolyin Bush Camp – Kalgoorlie - Esperance
Kilometres 21444 – 22893 km
As Monday was Leonie’s Birthday we’d planned a day of leisure which
included a few things that she loves to do. Naturally we started with a
sleep-in and a hearty dose of bacon rolls. For most the morning we lazed around
the van, the kids hired the pedal karts and zoomed around the park for a
while…. By about lunchtime we headed into Bunbury to check out a few of the
local sights. The Rotary Tower offered great views of the area with the black n
white chequered lighthouse provided a contrasting backdrop. Naturally our day
wasn’t complete without a bit of retail therapy and a coffee with the family.
By late afternoon we’d returned to the van where we enjoyed a lovely dinner.
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| Bunbury harbour |
Tuesday was the start of a reluctant milestone for us, our trip back east
had begun, we were heading towards Kalgoorlie. There was no more coastal
greenness or heavily populated suburbia, it was replaced by Merino filled
paddocks and endless golden wheat fields. It was harvest time and on number of
occasions we watched the big combine harvesters flanked by tractor trailers as
they filled and made their way to many temporary stockyards that spring up at
this time of year. By mid-afternoon we’d driven halfway to Kalgoorlie and were
happy to find a bush camp for the night.
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| Kalgoorlie |
Moving in a north-easterly direction away from the coast brought an
instant change in the temperature, the cool days and nights of southern WA were
replaced by the warmer temperatures that we’d experienced and loved for much of
our trip. On Wednesday as we pushed on to Kalgoorlie where we experienced temps
of 36deg and once again the scenery changed to a much harsher arid landscape….
With two solid days driving behind us we finally arriving in the mining town of
Kalgoorlie-Boulder where we soon found a caravan park and setup for a few days.
We headed into town for a few supplies and a quick look around, the enormity of
Kalgoorlie caught us by surprise. The supporting infrastructure that
accompanies a mine is amazing. It’s similar to that of Wollongong or Port
Hedland but there is no shipping port out here! We soon found ourselves at the
life-blood of Kalgoorlie – The Super Pit. This massive open-cut mine is beyond
comprehension, its 3.7km long, 1.55km wide and 600m deep. At the bottom, cars
look like ants while people are nearly unrecognisable and what are normally huge
bucket loaders and monster tippers are dwarfed against the scale of this
hole/mine…. By early evening the temperature still hovered around 30deg with
Thursday expected to peak at 40deg.
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| The Super Pit |
Thursday started out hot and got hotter, we spent much of the morning
by the pool at the caravan park but with things to see and do we couldn’t
afford to sit around all day. There was plenty of mining history to see with a
few old mine headframes still standing in place and the nearby lookout provided
a great view over the town…. Each day the Super Pit blast a new section of rock
for the next days excavation and at 1.30pm we were lucky to witness the
explosion. The ground rumbled and the noise vibrated through us as we stood at
the visitors lookout…. The culmination of our day was a tour of the Questa Casa
brothel which opens its doors to the public each day, an hour and a half later I
was very informed as to the way a madam
makes her money.
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| Blasting |
Friday started early for us as we joined a tour of the Super Pit. The
operators of the open-cut gold mine KCGM, provide a very informative tour bus
ride around the mine, from excavating the rock, to the crusher and mill through
to the electrolysis process, its all done on site. The mine produces approx’ 15
gold bars every 3 days or about $1.2 billion/year. There are 40 dump trucks
each costing $4.4 million running up and down the hill each day while there are
4 face shovel excavators each costing $18 million removing the ore and to be up
close to these heavy machines was amazing. Ethan didn’t know which way to look
as he continually spied a new machine or process….. After the tour and lunch we
finished the day by seeing a few more sights of Kalgoorlie.
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| Ready for work Boss! |
Saturday was moving day and we were on the road by 9am. We were heading
to Esperance where we’d hope to catch up with some friends we’d met earlier in
our travels. The day was pretty uneventful until we stopped at a small town just
north of Esperance for a pee-break when Leonie trips on a small step causing her
to fall to the ground, resulting in a broken pinky finger and a bit of bark off
her knee. After some onsite 1st aid we headed to the Esperance
Hospital where they strapped the finger, but they couldn’t X-ray it as it was
the weekend (typical small country town). Hopefully by Monday we’ll know the
full extent….. In the meantime we’ll spend a couple of days relaxing as we look
around Esperance at a slower pace…. Late in the day we caught up with some
friends we hadn’t seen since Perth, we spent the next few hours catching up on
our respective travels.
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| Big, bigger, biggest A grader, a water cart, a tipper |
Sunday is meant to be a day of sleeping, tell that to some of our
neighbours who thought it’d be good to be packing up and chatting to anyone who’d
listen at 5.45am. That aside we did have a lazy morning around the van, it was nearly
lunchtime when we headed out to see some of Esperance. We stopped by a local
festival, checked out the Pink Lake, a few lookouts and beaches before
returning to town where we stopped at a fish tannery. It was here that we
learnt how they turn unwanted fish skin into very valuable leather products
which we all thought was really interesting….. Our week concluded watching some
cricket and enjoying some liquid refreshments.
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| Esperance Bay |
By this time next week we’ll be somewhere on the Nullarbor, getting
very close to South Australia.
Ciao for now
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