Norseman – Kalgoorlie

Peter’s post

We’ve been so long aiming for WA and listening to all the feedback – the magnificent scenery, the deserted, isolated Nullarbor Highway, the wildflowers – so much to look forward to. But based on our first experiences in WA that is still in the future for us.

It’s not exaggerating to say that from crossing the SA/WA border, three things have stood out. The rubbish, the flies and the temperature. There is much more rubbish than we’ve seen anywhere else. I always do a rubbish pick up, no matter where we stop. Some places may only be a few bits and pieces, others, a bag. But WA has broken the record. In one park I picked up three big bags of rubbish and at the next it was four and in the end I only got half of it tidy. Why are people so unthinking and grubby when they get away from home?

Mind you, I did have some good experiences; lots of happy thumbs-up and trucky horns blasting as they saw me picking up rubbish, and at least two people took up the challenge and helped clean up.  One lady really did a great job – so good to see.

Maybe the rubbish contributes to this, but this leads to the flies. We saw more flies in the first few days of WA than we have in a year in SA, it certainly is fly-net territory.

Speaking of summer, our temps in SA were still giving us tops of 17 degrees, or on a good day, a top of 24. Our first day in WA was 33 degrees! It’s been in the high 20’s low 30’s since then, and it’s not even summer yet. This begs the question: Are we in a different state, or on a different planet?

It felt good to drive into Norseman. It’s a nice little town, you get a sense that the locals really try to make it that way. It’s actually bigger than we expected and we got the van tyre repaired here at a reasonable price and with good, friendly service and we got our first glimpse of the famous WA wild flowers.

Mining is such a giant operation in this area. Really for hundreds of kilometres there are mine sites, lots of road trains and I think that at least sixty percent of vehicles on the roads are work utes. But all around the mining sites is a really unusual and interesting landscape. Bushland with great granite boulders strewn around haphazardly and expansive, dry salt lakes. We spent hours exploring in the bush and it was really nice.

KALGOORLIE

With the tyre repaired we headed off for Kalgoorlie and actually managed to do it in one day! And it was a whole 184 km!

Kalgoorlie has a well organised and very well policed 72 Hour RV rest area. It’s only for self-contained RVs and has water to refill the van and a dump point. It’s very popular and about fifty vans and motorhomes use it every night.

The day after arriving (Friday) we went out for lunch at a local hotel. A really nice old hotel with great food. Sitting on the balcony we overlooked the main street and it was a lovely afternoon. When we got back home we were a little surprised to see a ranger waiting for us. We were politely but clearly advised that we couldn’t stay if we were to continue to drop water from the caravan. The problem was a freshwater tank drip (about a drip/second, certainly less than from water heater condensation). I had to put a bucket under the drip! Well, as Jo always says, silver lining.  It prompted me to fix the leak!

The 31^st of August produced a blue moon, and the biggest full super moon of 2023. Jo likes to take shots of the moon, but it is tricky, seeing as it’s a giant ball of light. This blue moon, not named because of its colour, was the reddest moon we’ve ever seen. The first shot shows the moon low over the mine slag, and the colour has not been enhanced at all. The second shot was taken much later and higher in the sky. These are followed by shots of the mine at Kalgoorlie, which happens to be the longest running Gold mine in Australia, the first gold strike was in 1893, and it’s still going strong.

Kalgoorlie has everything you could ask for including a Bunnings and a Supercheap Auto, so the next day (Saturday) we went shopping to Supercheap Auto. When we got back to the car it wouldn’t start. We called RACQ and they passed the job on to RAC WA and within ten minutes… yes, ten minutes, we were rushing back to the car to find Heath patiently waiting for us in is RAC van. He was really helpful, but after an hour, gave up. So, another call went out to RACQ and half an hour after that, Heath was back, this time with his tow truck. He quickly got the Ranger up onto the tow truck, packed us in the cab with him, and took us 300 metres around the corner to KJJ Mechanical & Engineering.

Trouble was that our van was now stranded in this very well policed 72 Hour MAXIMUM RV rest area. Another call to RACQ and an hour later, Heath was back yet again, this time with his Jeep. He hooked up to Chunky Bum and towed her a couple of kilometres up the road to the Goldminer caravan park, hmmm.

I have to give a shout out to RACQ/RAC and to the record time and great service. Everyone was just so helpful. RACQ, Heath, John, Reece and team at KJJ who also loaned us the workshop ute to get around in – all brilliant! It took all week and over $2,500 to get back on the road with a new fan pully and housing.

Oh, and while exploring Kalgoorlie and surrounds we found a rather unusual tourist attraction – a bush two-up school. I think OH&S might have a thing or two to say about this. 🙂

We picked up the car on Friday and left Kalgoorlie next day for Lake Ballard, that should be a welcome reprieve from the wind and the dust.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!