Day 36 - Newman - Neeeewwwmaaaan

Anyone ever watch Seinfeld? Whenever I work in this place (which I do several times a year) my mind automatically says it like Jerry….I squint my eyes and say “Neeeewwwmaaaan”!

Anyway  we had a great stay at the dodgy caravan site last night, met some lovely fellow travellers. Lincoln & Tracy were on a 6 week break & trying to fit in as much as possible, they were a bit envious of us having 3 months on the road, makes us realise how lucky we are.

Short drive to Newman (Neeeewwwmaaaan) and as we were leaving Kumarina I looked at the fuel gauge, Just under half a tank, only 160km to Newman (Neeeewwwmaaaan) Range on the trip computer said we had 210km worth of fuel……Easy Peasy!

Until…..We got 30km from Kumarina & realised we were battling a huge headwind!.... so what was happening was the range was coming down but not at the same rate as the distance to go!!! So I’m driving along trying to flick through the trip computer without Ness realising that we are cutting it fine! Started out 160km to go 210 worth of fuel, then 130km to go 170km of fuel, 100km to go 130km of fuel. Ok so my Bear Grills skills kick in…..Slow down James! Dropped back to 90Km/h then 88, then 86……slowly so Ness would not notice! Ok so the consumption dropped 60 km to go 74km range, 40km to go 51km range, 20km to go 26km range……. Pulled into the servo & the range was 4km…. Managed to pull it off without stressing the wife!....Phew! As if….I knew all along, I was just practising my new skill of not being a passenger driver as you have requested!!  The ever perfect wife.

Footnote…. We have 40 litres of diesel on the back of the van 2 X 20 litre Jerry cans, so we would have been right. Like they were full!!

Arrived in Newman (Neeeewwwmaaaan) and unhooked the van, had to get to the shops as they close at midday & we had to get a few supplies before heading out to the mine site tomorrow. I know this town well as I come here up to 6 times a year for work, so after parking the car in a pram spot (all the wheelie spots were taken…..No permits! But I didn’t have time to let tires down) I headed across to the hardware store & Ness went grocery shopping. Now Saturday morning is NOT the day to go shopping in Newman (Neeeewwwmaaaan)….. Woolies was PACKED!!! Seriously there were lines of 3-4 trolleys at each checkout, I wish I had taken my camera. This Woolies needs traffic lights. And there is no other option….this is it!!

We were heading out of the shopping centre at the same time as a group of young aboriginal kids aged between 14 & 6 (just a guess) this beautiful little girl came up alongside me, maybe 6 or 7? & just cocked her head to one side & just gave me a “Look”….. Now Ness & I don’t know if it was cheeky, confident, arrogant or whatever…..but the look on this kid was just priceless. She had attitude!

Tomorrow we head out to Christmas Creek mine site, now this is very unusual. Normally I go to sites by myself & they are very careful with who & what they allow on site. But Ness has wangled it so that they let us all stay on site with the caravan, & they have also allocated us a room with bathroom & access to the mess…Awesome! & very unusual for them to allow this. ….. Gee I’m special!

Goodnight from Newman (Neeeewwwmaaaan)…..Hahaha….I crack myself up. I actually think that it is Annie and I that are the special ones…they are so excited about having a baby come to site.  You wait till you see what Annie has for her mine uniform. They have even told me the chef is happy to cook us whatever meals we want at anytime….I forget to tell them I am passionate foodie!!

Reader’s Comments

Meredith, Heather & others for whom the blog is now part of their morning ritual…Sorry but the technology gods played havoc with the delivery unto thou!

The Delanders, Ha…I’d like to watch in the night garden on Crack Cocaine……maybe then it would make sense…..Looks like Grace will be the intellectual of the two! And what is with the Tombellydoo’s kissing each other, I mean a peck is a peck….but they full on snog each other.

Norm & Marg are in France awaiting the prologue for the greatest sporting event in the world to start. The Tour De France’ now apart from Bathurst, this is the one sporting event that I love. So jealous of you NnM.

Emily thanks for your message. So glad we have caught up this year, Ness especially is happy that you have reconnected & we look forward to continuing it…. Will try to work Sebastien’s birthday into the next tour of duty.

Annie’s Blog

Oh Man,  I’m so popular….last night we stayed at this rough place that had nice people staying there & they all kept telling Mum & Dad I was so cute. They said I had a lovely smile!.... and they  don’t even know me! And then today we were at a new place that dad kept calling in a funny voice & his face went all squinty….” Neeeewwwmaaaan”…..( he is really weird some days my Dad!)

But these people came to see me today & they said the same thing! This one lady came & sat on my rug with me and said she had Great Grandchildren!

My tooth hurt me today, it is really pushing out…..why can’t we all be born with teeth? How many more times do I have to put up with this.

It was so bad today that I couldn’t sleep in the afternoon, so Dad said to Mum “I’ll take her for a drive” now I know that my Dad just loves driving, so I’ve noticed that whenever he gets the chance he tells Mum that he will take me for a drive! I’m still trying to make up my mind if the drive is for me or for Dad?....Hmmmmm anyway I don’t remember much because as soon as we got in the car & he started driving I fell asleep.

 See you all later & thanks for your messages.

 Love from

AnnieInAVan…XXXXX

Day 35 - This is the life!

Ok I know you have not received blogs for two days now, but man me & Ness & Annie have had some awesome experiences.

Starting off last night in Leinster, we had one of those neighbours that want to help just a little too much. His name was Brian, & he was an ex firefighter. When we pulled into Leinster he wanted to help us back the van in, now Norm & Marg you know that one of the cardinal rules of caravanning is to not interfere when people are backing the van! Then he wanted to run my electricity lead out for me, then he followed me around as I was setting up the van to see what else he could help with. Don’t get me wrong he was a lovely guy but maybe just a little too helpful!

Started again this morning when we were packing up, he came over to see what he could do! Thanks Brian, hopefully we will run into you again somewhere.

We hit the road to Wiluna, it was about 175km, so roughly 2 hours. Arrived in Wiluna, now if any of you ever do get the urge to travel this beautiful country, you have to pass through Wiluna…. And I mean pass through! It is a small township that has a fairly large aboriginal population. But the hotel has bars on the windows & doors, there are abandoned cars parked on nature strips with wheels missing, we even witnessed a full on barney amongst some local women outside the supermarket, which also has bars on it!

We filled up with fuel, but you have to pay first! And then Ness went in for some water, everything in this store has a security tag on it, including Ness’s bottle of water! No shoplifting tolerated here!

After we filled up with fuel we went for a drive around town, Annie decided she was hungry, so we looked for a place to pull over & feed her….. ended up parking directly across from the police station in town where we saw a car pull out and head down to the supermarket to control the kerfuffle that was going on down there!

But it also gave us the opportunity to check out the road conditions for the next leg of the journey. I partially fulfilled a lifetime dream today, we actually drove on the Canning Stock Route, I’ve been wanting to go on this road ever since I could drive a car, the road out of Wiluna is the start of the Canning, so we drove on it for 40km before we had to keep going on our road. We actually drove on it for 2.2km of the real Canning to get to Well 2, it was a rough old drive just for that short distance, can’t imagine doing the whole road!

Turned back after Well 2 & then we had dirt road for the next 195km, it was well graded for most of it, but there were a few sections that had bad corrugations on it. Needless to say Pete A & Egg the Disco & the Trakmaster handled it with ease.

Got to the end of the dirt & back on to tar, had 70km to go before out next stop & just before we hit the tar these two trucks went past with huge pieces of mining equipment on them. We had the CB radio on & heard the pilot (the guy who drives in front) warning other trucks that the loads were 6M wide!!! So there was no chance of overtaking them! Luckily they easily sat on 100km/h so we just stayed behind them till our stop. We have photos…so check them out!

We pulled into the roadhouse at Kumarina Roadhouse, we had filled up here on our last trip & we knew there was a caravan parking area out the back, it’s NOT a caravan park. So we pulled up & I said to Ness I’ll go sort out our site while you get Annie out of the car. Ok so I don’t know where to start, I mean we should have known better when we saw the blackboard out the front that said “Cook Wanted” and someone had rubbed out part of the O & it now said “Cock Wanted” I went into the office & was served by a large girl who’s boob’s almost fell on me & who had tattoo’s all over her arms and multiple face piercings! Her exact words to me were “What sort of shit you been through!” I looked at my wheels to see if I had gone through dog poo or something! But then realised she was asking why I was in a wheelchair. I just said “Had an accident” she replied with “That’s F#@%ed!!”

I asked her if we could have a powered site, she said “yes as long as no one got it before ya”

So I paid & headed out the back only to be stopped by another lady that was much older than the one at the front, this one had a cigarette hanging from the side of her mouth, but she was still able to talk without it falling out! She looked at me and said “You’ll be F#@%ed tryin to get around here”

So I’m guessing that the F word is part of the acceptable vocabulary up this way!

We had considered having dinner at the café/meals area, but when we were walking around the place after setting up the van we saw the guys that were cooking the food…. We had dinner in the van tonight!

Reader’s replies

Not sure….got no internet!!!

Annie’s Blog

Today my Dad packed up the box on wheels & Mum closed it all up, that means we are going somewhere else!.....Yayyy!

We got to this town that was a bit scary, lots of the buildings were boarded up and they all had metal windows, no glass. I wonder why? Dad said lets get fuel & keep going, but I was hungry & made them stop. Don’t know why but my dad parked outside the police station?

We then went on this bumpy road, it wasn’t as bad as the other day because my poo didn’t fall out today. But it was still bumpy. It made my new tooth come through. Maybe Dad should drive on more dirt roads and all my teeth will come through.

I hope you are all well, have not heard from some of you for ages….have you forgotten me so quickly?

Love from

AnnieInAVan

Day 34 - Take Two - Leinster

We left Kalgoorlie this morning, we decided we would take a quick detour via another little town called Orabanda, one of the blog readers has a connection with Orabanda, Lorraine who is Vanessa’s aunty, her grandfather had a lot to do with the mine in Orabanda. We called in past the hotel today Lorraine & it is pretty rough. Can’t imagine what it would have been like when your pop was there!

We then headed north & went through a place called Leonora. Now Ness & I were here on our last trip & it was a dead town, Very little activity & very quiet. Now some of you may be aware that the government sent some refugees here last year? Well we can’t believe the difference in the town, today when we drove through the place was booming, there was traffic in the streets, people in the streets & the shops and it actually looked like the town was pumping! Which made me think (the following statement is my opinion & mine alone, if you don’t agree with it then bad luck) you know how we are having all this trouble with asylum seekers? Well the town I mentioned before is a great success experiment, so why don’t we do this.

When boat people arrive in Australia they are automatically given temporary visa’s with the following conditions.

• ·         They must live in a remote town for a minimum of 5 years without leaving it! No exceptions, they must check in with authorities weekly & if they don’t or they take off the visa is automatically cancelled
• ·         They must work in the area, the government can supply land that they can farm & work
• ·         They can start their own business if they like
• ·         If they breach any of the conditions it is automatic one way ticket back to where they came from

Surely this could work?  Nothing the politicians are doing seems to be working!

We made it to Leinster this evening, we were also here on our last trip. When we stayed at this caravan park there were only 3 or 4 other vans here, tonight when we pulled in we struggled to find a spot! It is chockers! The people here are a mixed bunch, grey nomads, full time travellers, people looking for work & lots of prospectors, you should see some of the prospectors set ups, most of them have vans or 4WD’s that are fully set up for them to spend weeks at a time in the bush. They only come into town for supplies & maybe a shower at the caravan park.

I think this type of lifestyle will become even more popular in coming years, sales in caravans, 5^th wheelers & camper vans are going through the roof, it’s only going to get busier out here.

Reader’s comments

Sarah told us her Nan watches in the night garden…. I’m actually starting to enjoy it too Sarah

Tereasa asked us to find the animal (or person) that lays golden nuggets…Ha!

And Liz shared that she now gets paid to read the blog….as she does it at work!

Annie’s Blog

Wow today we left the Kalgoorlie place, Mum & Dad said they wished they could have stayed longer as they were making friends with the people that lived in the truck & Dad was speaking to the two guys that were living in an old van & a tent, they were also looking for work.

We went to this old mining town, mum said her Aunties Pop used to live there, boy it sure was messy.

Tonight we are in a caravan park that doesn’t have an office, you just drive in & find a spot & then Mum goes to the local shop & pays the man…… but we nearly didn’t find a spot, they were all full.

Not much to share today as we were in the car all day.

Speak to you tomorrow

AnnieInAVan….XXXXX

Day 34 - Leinster WA

As we are in an area and have no power, James computer has run out of power and mine is about to there will be no blog this evening.

Think of it as a bonus...you will get two tomorrow.

Ness in Annie's Van.

xxoo

Day 33 - Last day in Kalgoorlie

Hello people, last day in Kalgoorlie today, I worked this morning at a different mine site that is owned by the same company, Barrick…..They are one of the world’s largest gold mining companies. And they have several sites in WA & in NSW.

Do any of you know the story of the discovery of gold over here? Here is what I found out from the museum yesterday. Paddy Hannan was an Irishman, he came to Australia on a boat in 1862, he went up to Ballarat & worked in the goldfields up there for 5 years before heading to NZ.  He came back to Australia in 1873 & worked in Victoria before heading across to WA. He worked at Southern Cross (we were just near there the other day).

Him & his mate Tom Flannigan decided they would go to Mount Youle where gold had been found, this is 30km north east of where Kalgoorlie is today.

On the way to Mount Youle Tom Flannigan saw some gold nuggets just lying on a sandy bed, but he knew if he stopped to pick them up the people ahead of them would see them & come back to see what they had found. So he threw a bush over the spot where they were and returned later when the coast was clear.

Paddy & Tom decided to ask another mate Dan Shea (who had loaned them the horses to get up there) to join them and between the three of them they picked up 109 ounces of gold in just 2 days!

Once word got out the rush was on & in a very short time there were over 50,000 people here all looking for gold.

Now I have a bit of a dilemma here…. We all know that Paddy Hannan is credited with discovering gold here & there are monuments to Paddy & streets named after him, pictures of him etc. But what about his buddies? Tom & Dan? Where do they get credit? Can any of you remember in high school history classes being taught about Dan Shea & Tom Flannigan? It’s just not right! I’m going to start a campaign to recognise Tom & Dan…. Now if only I could use Facebook!

The golden pipeline. Another interesting thing is the history of the pipeline from Perth to the goldfields. It required 50000 pipes 762mm in diameter & 8.5m long! Imagine going to the local hardware store and saying “Mate can I get 50,000 pipes 8.5m long for a job I gotta do!” the initial pipeline was completed in 1903. I just can’t imagine laying that much pipe using horse & cart & shovel, because there was not much else around in those days.

And you know I have a bit of a sentimental attachment to the pipeline? When we first came to Australia we ended up living in Kambalda which is just near Kalgoorlie. Mum & Dad bought me & my brother second hand bikes and we used to go riding along the pipeline tracks. When we got too hot we used to sit in the shady part of the pipe line & touch the pipe as it was always cool from the water!

Ok I have a challenge for you. Tonight when you get home get comfortable & even have a drink or two and then at roughly 630pm turn your TV to ABC2/4 and find a program called “In The Night Garden” Watch it & see if you can make any sense of it! It has creations called higgle piggle, upsa daisy, Makka Pakka, tumbley boos. I mean I have a great imagination but I wanna meet the person who created this show! They must be on drugs!

Reader’s Replies

Anne & Gary sent us an email that didn’t come through a while ago, no idea why it came back to you? But glad you sent it again.

Pete finally messaged on the blog, great to hear from you mate…..Any luck with a current Michelin Truck Atlas? The old one is being used as toilet paper it is so wrong & out of date! But seriously Pete, I was going to do the Gibb River Road on this trip, but I was told “Wait until Mary & Pete are with us!” so we better start looking at dates!

Nikki said that “A childhood is not complete until you have had a bath in a sink” wow Nik, that is so prophetic , sounds like something you would see on a greeting card!

And Flick tells us she is happily still stuck in Exmouth (by choice) say hi to Emma & Matt from us Flick.

Annie’s Blog

Oh I’m so over this blog thing, Dad asks me every night for my thoughts for the day and you know what….Sometimes I just don’t have thoughts & if I do they are my thoughts, maybe I don’t want to share them with other people! Who says that you have to share things that are made up inside your own head? I mean if I could speak I would tell people what I thought, but because I can’t I just think things & they are my thinkings not anyone elses! So that’s what I think today. Maybe I’ll share my thoughts with you all tomorrow.

Have a Wice sleep

AnnieInAVan…XXXX