Kalgoorlie

With this being the last chance for us to have some time together for a while(John starts 12 hour a day seeding next week) we thought we would make the most of it and head to Kalgoorlie. We left the farm at 9am Saturday morning after what seemed like the rain that broke the drought the previous night.

Travelling the back roads we had worked out it would take between 2.5 and 3 hours.We started out no worries the sun was shining and most of the water had run into the drains on the side of the hard orange gravel roads. I looked down to see we were sitting on 120kms no worries, great we are going to get there even quicker we discussed. That was until will turned onto what could only be described as the best 4wd track if you where out looking for some mud to play in. We didn't want to play we wanted to get to Kal.
Too bad we had come to far to turn around we had to push through. We had no option we had to engage 4wd and go through the puddles there was no other way around.The kids loved it as puddle after puddle the water sprayed out the sides of the car up their windows and over the bonnet and onto the windscreen. It would have been great fun any other day, but we needed to get to Kalgoorlie and into the shops before they closed at 5pm. We slowly travelled the last 80kms over the next 1.5 hours and arrived in Kalgoorlie safe and sound.

The tourist car from Victoria was certainly alot dirtier than any of the local mine cars which where disgusting. We headed to the first car wash we could find after doing the shopping to make the car a little more respectable.
Bargains, bargains, bargains in Kmart Kalgoorlie. New shoes reduced to $1.00 a pair, cutlery sets reduced to $6.00 for a 30 piece wiltshire set. Jumpers $15,.00 games for the kids $5.00 and so much more. Needless to say the trolley was full when we walked out and only spent $200.00 BARGAIN.

Shopping done and car cleaner we headed to the Prospector caravan park to check in for the night. A lovely English couple chatted about the sites of the town and their caravan park gave us the keys to our cabin and off we went to the Superpit.
 AMAZING, HUGE are just a couple of words that come to mind oh and bloody freezing. Who would have thought the dessert would be so cold. The look out to the superpit sits so high above the rest of Kalgoorlie and the wind just goes straight through you. We stood and watched for as long as our bodies could cope before returning to the caravan park to rug up in warmer clothes and organise dinner. Pizza was the request from the kids so pizza it was. Then back out to the superpit to check it out under lights. Shouldn't have bothered couldn't really see anything, so back again to the caravan park and to watch a little tv, and have a good nights sleep.
We started  Sunday with breakfast out, then we went to Bunnings for a few bits and pieces we found we needed for the van. Then off to the Museum. What a fantastic place! Entry by coin donation. We started our tour of the museum via a glass lift up the poppet head to see the view of the town of Kalgoorlie. What a sight! The town is so much bigger than I had ever imagined. Then we went back down a level to learn about the history of gold mining in the area. The gold rush and equipment used back the day, saw some old restored cottages and shops,we then checked out some 100 year old advertising banners in a climate and light controlled room. Even the kids where impressed. They where huge and had such detail and where all made of cloth. From  here we went and learnt of the local aboriginal communities and there practises, before going down to the vault! The vault contained the first bar of gold refined from the superpit weighing 400 grams, as well as other large gold nuggets, antique gold jewellery. All under the watchful eye of many a security camera. But what a bargain we where there for almost three hours for $6.

We checked out the superpit again for one last time as this was free and the kids just couldn't get enough of the trucks.

Then did the drive down Hay Street, which has Kalgoorlie's oldest and original working brothel. We didn't tell the kids what it was and made sure it was daylight when we drove by. You can do a full guided tour which reading the reviews is quite the eye opener. A drive by was enough for me.

We then called out to the airport and the home of the Royal flying doctors service. Unfortunately no tours run on anything in Kalgoorlie on a Sunday so we had a look at the planes and then headed out of town back to the farm.

We stopped and had a picnic lunch and then travelled a different way home. It turned out to be and extra 130kms and we got back a little later than we had expected. Exhausted from our big weekend and ready for bed, I quickly whipped up some dinner showered the kids and put them to bed. Made John and I a nice cuppa before bed, only to look up at the clock to see it was only 7pm. OMG we really had covered a lot of kilometers and seen a lot of things we where all exhausted and fast asleep by 8.30pm, after a fun filled, educational and action packed weekend.