9th March 2010 - Kalgoorlie to Esperance

Distance travelled: 385 kms
Cumulative distance: 4255kms


We had a leisurely breakfast at the York Hotel at 7:30. The only other guests we met were from Holland and we had a convivial chat over our Weeties. We had booked a Super Pit Tour leaving at 9:30 so we had some time to kill. We wandered down the street to the huge pile of the City Hall built in local pink limestone. Our aboriginal friend from the day before was sitting in front of it abusing the world in general. Colin bought a postcard an sent it to Morag.

We got on the bus with about 16 others and were given the Mine Induction quiz as we drove to the pit. The rules were very similar to Hanson. The mine is one of the largest gold mines in the world and had dug a pit 3.5 km long, 1.5km wide and 0.5 km deep. They only get 3 grams of gold per tonne of rock and 7 out of 8 trucks are carrying

waste not gold bearing rock. These trucks are huge and carry 230 tonnes of rock and can be see moving up and down the pit haul roads in the picture.

The driver took us first to the workshops where the huge machines were maintained. We got quite close to them in bits and pieces. The tyres alone cost $35,000 each.

Then we went to a couple of viewing platforms that over looked he pit. The picture above shows some of the old underground tunnels that the pit has intersected. They dig up large amounts of timber and metal from these tunnels. The tunnels were following quartz leads for the gold and actually go 3 times deeper than the pit.

We had our lunch when we got back and then took off for Esperance about 400 kms to the south. This took us back over the route we followed the day before to Norseman and then further south to the coast. The countryside was lightly treed all the way with wheat fields as we nearer Esperance. Colin's backside was particularly sore on this leg and he'll have to do something about it if he's to manage the big mileages we need to do on the 2nd leg. For some reason the fuel consumption reduced significantly compared to the trip across the Nullarbor. Fuel consumption is very important as we will have to ride for almost 400 kms between petrol stations on the Gibb River Road. I took a snap of the Norseman Workers Club that we had enjoyed a couple of nights before.

We found our caravan park in Esperance and they didn't have our booking, but had a cabin available anyway. It is a very low rent cabin which suits us fine. We went into town to find a place to have dinner and chose a place beside the harbour. By chance we found a couple John and Margaret from Colin's branch of Ulysses (Melbourne). We shared our table and J & M regaled us with stories of their motorcycle tour of India which seemed to be one near death experience after another.

Tomorrow we actually arrive in Albany and start the festivities. The weather is fining up which is good as we will be spending 4 nights under canvas.