Day 30 - Kalgoorlie
Sunday, June 24, 2012 at 07:44AM So you know that this is a work trip right? I mean some of you think that we are on a 3 month holiday!....No no no no no! we are working while we are away, I have numerous sites to visit & Ness is liaising with clients about this trip & work for the rest of the year.
However we do have the occasional day that we can do a few things that we want to do. Yesterday & today were a couple of those days, I mean sure we were travelling from Bunbury to Kalgoorlie, a trip of almost 800km, but we decided to do it a little different. We are set up very well for off road travel, so we looked on the map & decided to take the “Road less travelled”.
We headed to Wave Rock which is just near Hyden in WA (that’s for you Susanne…Your old stomping ground) but we then decided we were going to do a couple of hundred (173 to be exact) km’s of dirt road. We headed north towards Southern Cross & Marvel Loch (again for Susanne). It was awesome, we drove past some huge grain properties & the dirt road was in really good condition.
We arrived in Marvel Loch at 6pm & it was already dark so we could not see too much around the town, but we determined there was no caravan park so we found a quiet little spot on the edge of town and pulled up the van for the night.
The next day we woke & had brekky before going for a tour of the town.
Now the only reason this town is here is mining, gold, Zinc & other minerals & when the mining stops the town dies, we did a bit of research & found out that St Barbara, the company that owns the mines that support the town are pulling out in August this year. The town is basically a series of mine camps, a local store & a pub, no police station, no post office…..Nothing. But the saddest thing is we drove past the school, it is abandoned & has not been used since 2005. It is a lovely old series of buildings, just left as it was the day it closed. No vandalism, no graffiti… you could virtually mow the lawns, clean the windows & move back in! I said to Ness imagine buying this place & turning it into a home or series of homes! But it won’t happen because once the mines close there will be no reason to be there!
From Marvel Loch we headed towards Kalgoorlie on the Great Eastern Hwy, but we noticed a sign that took us off the highway to an “Interpretive site” we had a bit of time up our sleeves so we turned in to a dirt road. We were a little concerned when the road started to wind around & then even crossed over the pipeline. We pulled up at the parking area & all we could see were a few old relics & a sign explaining the history of the area.
But…. I noticed that the sign beside the dirt road pointed to Kalgoorlie & I asked Ness if she was game? She looked at me & said…May as well, so we set off down this narrow dirt road that followed the pipeline. The first thing we noticed was the signs advising a 40km/h speed limit, but then when we saw some mud puddles & bushes overgrowing the road we were almost looking for a spot to turn around.
Luckily we kept going because it was fantastic, the road was narrow & overgrown & we travelled slowly but it was a lot of fun & the car & van handled it really well.
We were actually a little disappointed when the dirt road ended & we got back onto tar!
So all in all the last couple of days were basically just for us to get from one job to another, but we had a lot of fun along the way & saw some incredibly interesting things. Ness will post some pictures tonight….but the pictures just don’t do some of the places justice.
Reader’s comments
Susanne tells us that she grew up in the area that we are currently travelling through & she said she dated Pyjama man when she lived here!
Norm & Marg are currently in France, along with Rob & Juan…..Hey that means the blog is international! I should be charging more for you all to read it now it is international…. What do you mean you are not paying to read it????
Norm had a go at me for promoting another brand of van….. for those of you who don’t know there is a brand called Avan. And Annie signs off AnnieInAvan….. Well Norm thanks for that, but it would have sounded pretty bad AnnieInATrak, or AnnieInABox!!!
Heather went to Nimbin today, I reckon you should move there Heather, Brad could run for mayor!
Quote of the day
Ness changing Annie’s 3rd pooey nappy of the day “Poo just smells!”
Annie’s Blog
My Dad took me & Mum down some rough roads today! It shook me up so much that all my poo fell out! So if you are ever having trouble doing a poo…..ask my Dad to take you down a dirt road with the box on wheels behind you….Scary as!
I cracked Mum up today…..I played Peek A Boo with my blanket, she thought it was hilarious (whatever that means!) Mum put it on Facebook for those of you who have it.
Today we went to Coolgardie, Mum told me & Dad that she came here with Nan & Pop when she was younger, and Dad said that he went to school in Kambalda which is near where we are staying. So I was thinking “Why are we here again if Mum & Dad have both already been here?” can’t we go somewhere like Disneyland or somewhere you haven’t been?
Goodnight from where Paddy Hannan found gold!
AnnieInAVan….XXXX
Reader Comments (3)
Hilarous!!! (you have a very funny sense of humour James!) I have read each blog in it's entirety!! A mean effort for someone that has a almost 6 month old (i.e demanding baby!!), lucky for me, he was having one of those growth spurt days and decided to sleep a lot, which meant mummy had some mummy time to herself to read your blog!! (and I'm sure the panadol I was giving him to help with his teething probably contributed to it also!) :) Having said all that it took me over 9hrs to read everything (between the feeds, cooking dinner, picking up hubby from work, doing the laundry) - I'm sure Vanessa can relate to all this!!
Now that I have read from the start to current day the blogs that I read since I joined the list now make a bit more sense!
I am forever saying to my hubby, lets buy a caravan /whinnebago ( however you spell it!) and travel around Australia - you are all living my dream at the moment - how fabulous!! Can you please adopt me as one of your children??
Questions (some topics for you to discuss in future blogs):
A diesel mechanic - what is that exactly?? Is it as it sounds? Someone that works with vehicles that have diesel?? (sorry was not brought up with brothers or around people that have a love of cars).
What's your take on the " muppets" that park in disabled car parking spaces that clearly do not need these particular parks?? I notice them a lot more now that I have to rely on searching for "mummy with prams" car parking spaces at shopping centres (which are always next to each other) .. it erks me like something shocking!!! My hubby tells me to calm down, I just want to knock their block off!
Thorougly enjoying reading your blog and especially looking through the eyes of Annie!! I look forward to my nightly doses of the Wood family adventure!
Love to all!
Celeste :)
You made me laugh with the comment brad should run for Mayor of Nimbin, currently he is taking on the Gold Coast City Council over their plans to build a smelter two kilometres from our house, complete with smoking chimney
I dont think the council knows what its in for taking on Mr Brad Atkins lol!
Celestes comment about not growing up with brothers made wonder today as well, my ride on lawn mower broke down ( the drive belt burnt though and flung off and hit me in the leg) and I tried to fix it with a pair of tights because I remembered years ago when our car broke down miles from anywhere (you were 14 I think) and you told mum to take her stockings off so you could use them to make a makeshift fanbelt - anyway $400 dollars later my ride on is in good nick and Brad and the mechanic had a great laugh over the makeshift repair job I tried out.
I could only wonder at why they were laughing as you and I know that the makeshift stocking fanbelt got us the 60km home to our warm beds in the middle of winter.
so thank goodness for brothers!!!
FYI James, we are now in Italy...and technically we are paying for it since we have to buy wifi to get access to your wise words!