B.W.Hospitality Inn Kalgoorlie

Decided last night we were just going to just go for it and go for Kalgoorlie. Made good time and got here rather smoothly. Set up and then set off for the super pit to see the gold mine modern times way. THe trucks are huge and didn't get to get too close but still hard to grasp hw huge it all is and hard to believe how much bigger it's supposed to get. Then ...

... and it is breathtaking to see. The trucks look like Tonka Toys!

After a look around up at the mine it was time to checkout the town. NEVER have i seen so many pubs in one town for a very long time. So while we were out and about in Kal i found a statue of Paddy Hannan who had the main street and a pub named after him. I was lucky enough to sit on his knee..only bc he is a bronze statue ...

... being typed on said train. Although it is now pitch black, 19.40, the part of the journey undertaken in daylight was very varied. Initially over two hundred km of pure outback, which alternated between bright red soil with scattering of bushes and trees, and golden sand, with similar vegetation. Excitement for Sara as she saw her first kangaroo on this section. Following this, hectare upon hectare of green, as early corn crops were growing, interspersed with ...

Thursday 9th April. We got up pretty early for a full days driving. The Border check was very exciting, went through our fridge, the back of the camper & the back of the car. With a clean bill of health we got going. I had another dose of Sinus, so drove first, knowing I would feel like **** come afternoon. We went through some amazing country & scenery. From the lookout above the Madura Pass Roadhouse, the Roe Plains are just like the documentaries you ...

... the tap water is. As soon as I got to my brother's house in Kalgoorlie I really needed a shower so I turned the taps on and got ready to jump right in. As the water heated up the familar smell of warm chlorine wafted up my nostrils. At first I felt like I was washing myself in the water pumped out of an indoor pool, but have somehow become quite immune to it. While it does smell a bit when you are not used to it I can't complain... Its not like everyone is walking around ...

... take a company ute to Kal anyways to pick up the part, so in the end, off we went, 3 hours of a rough dirt road before getting back on wonderful bitumen (aka Ashphalt). Got my Cosmo magazine and hair colour (which i have been longing for) and he showed me the SuperPit, which is a massive massive open-pit mine. The machinery below was so far away that they looked like little Tonka trucks playing around. It was pretty amazing comparing that to the troy ...

... thank god, these guys stop for nothing especially a tiny little car like ours!! Kalgoorlie was a real rough and ready Wild West town, full of gold miners and people come from all over to work in the pits for the good money on offer. We couldn't get accommodation as they had a shutdown in effect at the local smelt and the town was full of workers who were rebuilding the furnace and all hotels were booked. We managed to get a room at a manky backpackers place ...

... to get too dirty and sweaty!) It felt like we were fed constantly - 2/3 course lunches, dinners and breakfasts. The food was of a surprisingly good standard and the service was excellent, very slick, with really pleasant staff. The lounge car (where the bar was) was a little small, considering the train was full, but for the most part we were happy in our cabin. Meals were included for us, but the prices for drinks were pretty good considering ...

... people like: - 'the neighbour', who with a sudden rush of life jumped over the fence and started throwing pepper in the eyes of playing children before telling a startled and highly outraged mother to 'get f**ked!' Or: - 'the aboriginal woman', who in the click of a finger jumped up from a bench outside a shop and started hammering her fist into the face of her bewildered man, deliriously, like a crazed animal. If his face wasn't there you'd have thought she was banging ...

... in the deep-freeze to having a keg of beer explode full-force in my face (easily the most 'refreshing' pint you could ever hope not to have.) Hotels like this are driven largely by the mining companies who pay huge amounts of dollar to have their workers pampered with hospitality. All day, from the 4am breakfast till close, they're fed, watered, accommodated and sent to bed reeking of stale beer. It's a highly lucrative business. As plates and ...