C Inn Midas Kalgoorlie

Now this is a very different side to Australia - gold mining country. Kal (as the locals call it) was one of the first settlements in WA back in 1870 something, and was/is an incredibly profitable city following the lucky gold finds!

There is a very raw edge to the place, a kind of Wild West feel. There are lots of bars, brothels, butch miners wandering the streets and, once again, a huge amount of vacant looking natives.
The architecture was the ...

Kalgoorlie, gold mining town. This Super Pit still makes $2M a day. Huge machinery is at work, the main source of income and employment.

Prostitution seems legal in this town, guided tours through brothels are offered in the afternoon.

Fights are regular in the pubs.

Time has been standing still here.

... It is in the most God-forsaken place, yet in the early 1900's there were 17 people working there & 20 odd living there! Once we got out to the main road we made a run for the Caiguna Roadhouse, where we put the campers up & stayed. Pretty grotty, but ok for an overnighter; biggest problem being that nothing fresh is stocked, (especially after getting rid of all fruit & veg the night before!) Friday 10th April (Good Friday). Having decided to make a ...

... however, my hair has been drying into a sleek style of its own accord. Even the grey wiry ones are behaving. It may have a bit to do with the dry heat as well, stand in the sun for 5 minutes and its like having been under a hairdryer for an hour. I don't mind the smell of chlorine if it means I'll continue to have good hair days. We'll see what happens when I hit Melbourne and its drizzle. I may be forced to settle in Western Australia after all to continue with the good hair days.

... was on $200/hour. One of your best mate. Do you think I should still set up that IT Data Centre in Kalgoorlie? Number Two Before I left Brisbane in May Gordon remarked that I'd be back in Brisbane within a month. Three and a half months later I returned for a well earned rest and Gordon claimed that he'd predicted correctly that I'd be back in three months. Make up your mind will you. Number Three I wore a jacket to work not long before I left in May. As soon ...

... went on as many of the few items they were wearing also came off. Happy days! We visited the Super pit; the biggest gold mine in Australia. We got there just in time for a blast. In the distance we could see the 2 million dollar super trucks that carry out the stones containing the gold for processing. They look like toys in the pictures, but they are huge, the tyres alone are massive each one costing $30,000! We continued our tour of the goldfields by ...

... a gold mine. If I'm honest, the tour was a bit tedious, and it was pretty late at night so I actually fell asleep on the bus! The most interesting part was seeing the SuperPit (as they call it) where the mining is still happening - it was huge, like something out of a sci-fi film. It was also really windy, apparently because we were up so high (but I missed the guide telling us that, cos I was asleep!) At best, it was good to get off the train ...

... materialised right out of nowhere. Actually the poor ******* fell at my feet, right by the stool I was sitting on and within seconds the whole place erupted in pandemonium. It was all so immediate. All we could do was sit there and shut up as this gangly bearded fella in dirty overalls came over and began breaking his face up carefully and meticulously with his steel toe-caps. Right on cue the juke box got turned off and every one of us in the room got to hear that lovely ...

... spend your money on in Kal: beer, gambling and sex. For anyone looking to top up the fund pot, there is still a hefty amount of work here. And it doesn't have to be mine work. The spin-off business itself throws open a whole fleet of opportunities. I got offered security work almost immediately following the briefest of introductions. To say these guys are laid back is the understatement of understatements. There's a silly amount of money to be ...

Saa blev Magna startet igen mod endnu en lang tur, denne gang mod ost til Adelaide via Kalgoorlie or Nullabor

Forste stop var Kalgoorlie, en gammel guldmine by. Der er stadig en fungerende mine der indtil videre har leveret 50 mill kg guld og er dermed den fjerde storste i verden.
Minen er paa storrelse med Ayers Rock, den er kaempe. Maskinerne der kore rundt der nede er ogsaa kaempe store. De kan have 250.000 kg med paa et laes og paa et laes er der kun guld paa i ...