Sunday, April 26, 2009

Kalgoorlie & Esperance

Kalgoorlie & Esperance - 23rd – 26th April

Kalgoorlie - The Super Pit
Super Pit Kalgoorlie Western Austraila
From Kalgoorlie & Esperance

After recovering from the long drive in Norseman and stuffing ourselves with a truckies hamburger we set off for Kalgoorlie the next day. Kalgoorlie is the major town in the Goldfields and still survives off the gold mine known as the Superpit. We headed to the lookout over the Superpit and were just amazed at how massive it was. Eventually it will be 3.8ks long, 1.35ks wide and 500m deep. You could see the huge dumper trucks taking the rocks out of the pit and they looked like tiny lego trucks (these weigh 166 tonnes and can carry 225 tonnes each). There was some seriously big machinery in operation. We would love to have had a closer look at the huge trucks. After, we had a bit of a drive around the city and saw the old brothels but didn’t really do much more and decided to head back down to Esperance stopping the night in Coolgardie. It was worth the trip up though just to see the Superpit.

Esperance Beach
Esperance Beach Western Austraila
From Kalgoorlie & Esperance

We arrived in Esperance to wind, rain, cloud, cold and gorgeous beaches! After spending a sleepless night in our roof top the weather didn’t want to let up - this wasn’t helping as we had lots of washing to do. The weather didn’t know quite what to do, it would be sunny and hot one minute, then chucking it down with rain the next, then sunny and hot. We hoped it would improve and headed out to drive the coast drive and see the beaches. The views and beaches were beautiful, but unfortunately the wind didn’t stop and made it a bit unpleasant to get out and walk along the beach. So we opted to stay in the car and head back to the campsite. As we collected our washing it came apparent that a pair of Carl’s shorts was missing. I swear I had hung them out that morning. We had a good old look around as it had been windy but to no avail, checked the car and laundry, still no luck. We asked at reception in case somebody had found them, but nothing other than a suggestion that it might have been kids messing around and to come back in the morning and see the manager. Again we searched the park, but nothing. We checked again the next morning with reception as we thought the manager should know, but all we got was an unsympathetic ‘oh well, sorry’. We just hope they blew off and that somebody’s kids didn’t pull them off or that somebody took a liking to them. Unfortunately, for some reason I had been uneasy about leaving our cooker and gas bottle out unattended all day, little did I know it should have been our washing, but sometimes you just get a feel for the place. It is a shame that we left Esperance with an unsavoury feeling as it seemed a nice place.

Wave Rock
Wave Rock Western Austraila
From Kalgoorlie & Esperance

We weren’t quite sure what to do next so we started heading along the coast to Margaret River. We took a bit of a detour north to the Wave rock and decided to then head straight to Margaret River rather than driving around the coast.

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