8th March 2010 - Norseman to Kalgoorlie

Distance travelled: 185 kms
Cumulative distance: 3870 kms


Another drizzily day welcomed us this morning. The caravan park awoke at 6am so we decided we might as well get going as there was going to be no more sleep for our intrepid Ulyssians. Colin managed to get his tent down and packed in fairly short order. Alan has a rather more sophisticated abode with two entrances, copious storage areas and all kinds of extra bits so it takes forever to dismantle and load on the bike. We eventually got away at 8am. At this rate we'll be still packing after we have arrived at the next stop!!!
Breakfast was taken at a roadhouse 90kms north of Norseman called Widgiemooltha (trying pronouncing that with a few drinks under the belt). It was the centre of the gold rush in Western Australia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There is a replica of a huge nugget weighing 1153 ounces found in 1931 worth five thousand pounds then and about US$1,000,000 now. As soon as all the surface gold was found Widgiemooltha died. The weather was drizzily to start with but luckily fined up after breakfast into a sparkling sunny day.
We arrived in Kalgoorlie which is the centre of the gold mining industry in these parts at 11am before the pub we are staying at had opened. Luckily the manager was kind enough to let us in and park our bikes in the yard. We had had enough riding so we decided to do the tourist bit and check out the local points of interest. The tourist info office was the obvious place to start. Unfortunately they couldn't help us as they had no brochures for the local tour. It seems an audio guide was being developed and was running a bit late. They ran out of brochures a few weeks ago and decided not to get any more printed as the audio guide was imminent!!! C'est la vie so we struggled on regardless and found the Mining Museum open.
One of Colin's old motorcycles was there which impressed him no end. We managed to book a tour of the "Super Pit" for tomorrow. This is the biggest open pit mine in the world and can be easily seen from the space shuttle so the next time you are up there check it out.
This evening we went to the viewing platform above the pit to watch a blast. It was quite spectacular and the platform shook with the blast to give a bit more realism. The pub we are staying is called the York Hotel and was built in 1900. It was pretty flash in those days and has recently been renovated. It is fairly basic with shared bathroom facilities which doesn't bother these geriatric bikers. Alan has run out of clean undies so some washing was essential. The room is now festooned with all kinds of unmentionables. Hopefully they are all dried by the morning otherwise they'll get a bit mouldy in the panniers. Tomorrow after our tour of the Super Pit we are off to beautiful Esperance on the south coast. The forecast doesn't sound too flash but we live in hope. Whatever happened to sunny Australia???