29th Jan - Esperance

Not sure what happened to the magic weather, but we woke to an overcast, rainy, windy day.  Esperance has been dubbed the Bay of Isles and has some of Australia’s whitest beaches.   Agriculture, tourism and fishing are the main industries here.  Even though it is a crappy day, we decide to take the scenic Great Ocean drive, approx 40kms.   It takes us over 4 hours to do, believe it or not, as we make a number of stops along the way to take in the scenery.   The sun does come out periodically during the day, but it is as windy as and chilly out there.

I try my best seal impression, it didn't work

End of Tanker Jetty looking back to shore

Rotary lookout towards Blue Haven beach

The drive takes us via Tanker Jetty and Sammy the Seal, we think that’s the statue but find out later it is a real seal that comes in every day to the jetty in the hope of finding a feed of fish from the fishermen cleaning their catch on the jetty.  We go via Rotary Lookout and a number of beaches, some great for swimming, others great for fishing or just looking at.  The nicest of which without a doubt is Twilight Beach, won best beach Australia 2006.   Very popular today for wind surfers.  The drive then winds back around past the Pink Lake (not pink today) and back into town. 

Salmon Beach, bit too rough here

Twilight beach, perfect conditions for wind surfers

View looking down on Twilight Bay

The coastline looking towards Observatory Point and Island

Steps to beach at Observation Point

We head back to camp for a late lunch, then go out in search of Stone Henge, yes that’s right someone has built a true to life size replica of Stone Henge right here in Esperance.  We found it, can see it from the road, though it is blocked by a bit of a fence.   $20 entry to see a pile of rocks, don’t think so.     Back to town and via Tanker Jetty again and Sammy is there!     The afternoon is getting dismal, we get a nice cup of hot chips and head back to camp to watch a movie for the rest of day, Wyatt Earp, turns out to be an epic, too late to cook tea, tin of soup and we hit the sack.

Some how we don't think there will be too many nude bathers out today

Pink Lake lookout

SAMMY!  Isn't he beautiful......

28th Jan - Off to Esperance

We have three holes of the Nullarbor links to do today, one at Kambalda and two at Norseman.    The Kalgoorlie course was prestine, beautiful green tees, fairways – we are  not expecting the same for the next 14 holes at least, could be interesting.  Kambalda, well the fairways were pretty much dirt, the tees were a dirt box and the putting green?  I’m not sure what they were but they were black.    We had to stamp our own score card, there’s no dress rules from here on in but old mate recommends that we wear shoes at Norseman cause that course is full of prickles.   Old mate come to live here from Kal back in the late 60’s when there was a shortage of work there and houses weren’t selling, times were tough.  Back then he couldn’t sell his house for $300.

The dirt box tee off

We aren't the first ones here today, we can tell

Widgie what the?  Between Kambalda and Norseman

Old mate was right Norseman course is prickly, two par 4’s here to do.  On the other side of the golf club is a salt lake, it is hot as middle of the day, maybe this wasn’t so clever.  Anyway we are enjoying the golfing, breaks the trip, a bit of exercise and a few good laughs.    Norseman is another prosperous mining gold town.  A prospector was returning from the Coolgardie gold fields when he stopped to rest his horse, “Hardy Norseman”.  Hardy pawed the ground to uncover a huge nugget.  Prospector Sinclair went on to discover a large reef, which he called after his horse, Norseman.  After a big day on the fairways, we arrived at Esperance late in the afternoon.   After the last few days in the outback heat, we were happy to arrive back on the coast, the weather is fine and cool. 

That was my best tee off yet, straight down the guts

Darl, can't see the ball for dust.........

19th hole at Norseman, closed???

Hardy Norseman, pride of place in main street of town

Lunch under the gum tree in Norseman

27th Jan - The Morning After

My Darl not too bright and cheery this morning, but we have to get up early go do the first two holes of the Nullarbor Links golf course at Kalgoorlie course.   I managed to drag him out of bed at 6am, we only just made it to the course for 7am tee off.  We’re playing a par 4 and a par 5 here.  I haven’t played for 6 years and Darl has only ever played one game of golf in his life…. We won’t be mentioning the scores just yet, I’m sure we will improve over the next few holes.  The Nullarbor Links golf course is the longest golf course in the world, 1365 kms long, we are looking forward to a bit of “hit and giggle”.

The 1st of 18 holes across the Nullarbor, watch where the ball goes Ling!

I like ya style Darl!!

Seeing how my Darl is not so flash today and he spends the rest of the day horizontal, I take myself off to the Brothel tour.    It is at the Questa Casa, the oldest working brothel in Australia.  There were 10 of us on the tour, we were met by the madame - Carmel, no working gals in sight, though she only has two left working there now (was 11), I guess that’s why she is doing the tours for a bit of extra cash!   Now Carmel is  not quite what I expected for a brothel madame, though very well spoken, dressed in t-shirt, cotton pants and sandshoes and she looks like she has had quite a bit of facework done and I reckon she is wearing a wig too..........She has a colorful story to tell how she started working here some 20 years ago, what the conditions were like.  I’m sure she only hit the tip of the ice berg with a few stories of goings on over her time but they bought tears of laughter and sometimes gasps of pain to us curious visitors. 

The oldest working brothel in Australia

You guessed it, the bondage room, poor Bundy Bear!

Nowadays there is only 2 working brothels in Hay Street, one just closed in November and is now a B&B establishment – that’s Bed and Breakfast.   The de regulation of prostitution some 11 years ago started the Hay Street demise, the town was inundated with sex workers, working privately or from Hotels in town, gone are the strict rules and regulations prior to that time.   And gone is the buzz of Hay Street, 13 brothels with ‘Starting Stall” windows out front, it was a street of bright lights, scantily clad gals showing off their wares and vying for the attentions of the blokes wanting to get their rocks off!  SORRY mum it’s true.

The opposition next door, red says it all doesn't it

26th Jan - Australia Day!

We kicked off the day with a bacon and egg brekky put on by the van park at 9am, most enjoyable and we need a bit of a lining on our stomachs as we plan to check out a few of the pubs today.   After brekky we head down Burt Street, about a half hour walk from where we stay.  First pub shut, opens at 12 – it is about 10.30am.  Second pub shut down, 3^rd pub only a sly door open, looks a bit dodgy so we bypass.  Next pub not open till 12pm – what the??!!  

The balloons didn't last long

Another old workers cottage on our trek down town

First pub not opening till 12pm....

By this time we are getting a thirst, thankfully the next pub is open, yay!  We have a drink at the Albion then move onto the next, the Metropole, one of the pubs sustained a fair bit of damage in the earthquake, still open for business but it doesn’t really look like it from the outside.   This pub is special as it actually has a view to the underground mining pit in the public bar, locals are friendly.   It’s amazing to think that the maze of mine shafts, tunnels etc., all runs beneath the streets, homes in Kal-Boulder to this day.

Metrolpole dress code - shirt, shorts, shoes and minimum 4 teeth

Mine shaft into the pub cellar, there's a few of these around

Exchange Hotel, opens 6pm.......

Moving on, we catch a cab into Hannan Street – the Kalgoorlie Pub is surely open, it is!   Only one catch they have an FM top 100 party happening and it costs $10 each to enter, double what the?!  We move on down the street, past a number of closed pubs, one opens at 2pm the other at 6pm, this is crazy… Finally we find the Criterion open, it is a sportsman’s bar, all the races are on and the TAB is running.  We won’t be here long….. but we were, met a couple blokes, one from Gold Coast and Frank from Gumdale (not far from where we live) over here working in the mines.   They run a few yabbie races and have cheap snags, mash, onion and gravy rolls….good tucker!  A couple hours later we move on to Hannan Hotel for a couple more to end the day.   All in all a great day out, wonder how my Darl will pull up tomorrow??

Criterion Pub

And they're off and racing

Darl cleaning his shoes off before entering pub....

The only place I know where pubs open at 6am with Skimpys

25th Jan - Pushie tour Kal-Boulder

We had a day out on the pushies today.  Visiting this place is like stepping back in time.   Most of the original town buildings are still standing in Hannan Street in Kal and in Burt Street in Boulder, however some of them a little worse for wear especially in Burt Street due to an earth quake hit the area back in April, 2010.  A lot of scaffolding surrounding some of the buildings in Burt Street, but most are still open for business.  We are amazed at all the little miners cottages which are still lived in, some renovated, some not, but it looks like the majority of these original huts are still standing with their little back street lanes also still in tact.

On the borderline of Boulder and Super Pit

Court Hotel now offices

Miner Monument operating air leg drill

Typical miner's cottage

Back street alley

Way back when (1890’s) the find by Paddy Hannan and his two mates near Mount Charlton, sparked “Gold Fever”, by the early 1900’s the town was buzzing with 30,000 people, 93 hotels and 8 breweries.     A lot of the men bought their wives and familes, it was known as a “family town” but there were a lot of men also on their own, then came the “working gals”.    With police enforcement all the brothels eventually contained in infamous Hay Street, 13 at the height of the game, but more on that later.

The York Hotel, quite regal looking

Kal's oldest pub, built 1895 now the pub with no beer......

Wonder if they got these back home yet, 21st century loo

This old timer meets Darl's approval

Little Paddy Hannan himself......

Hay Street, nearly there.......

It is amazing that the “Super Pit” lies right beside the town.   It was WA businessman Alan Bond who had the foresight back in the 1980’s and bought up all the mining leases of the Golden Mile which was the start of the open cut Super Pit operations.   Bond's company was not able to finalise the deal and it was taken over by KCGM, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and the Super Pit has been operating ever since, mining some 85 million tonnes of material annually to produce approx 800,000 ounces of gold. 

24th Jan - Karalee to Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Karalee rocks offer a couple of walk trail options, long and short – we take the short walk down the length of the trough onto the rocks, then back through the bush to camp.  As with Wave Rock these rocks also have a catchment wall, used to collect the rainfall runoff and direct downhill into a system of cross country flumes and aquaducts into the dam.   It was heralded as one of the most ambitious and successful engineering feat of the late 19th century.   This site was also used way back when, as a water supply for travellers and animals, it was at a price - travellers on foot were free.  It has rained this morning so we wait for the tent to dry out before packing up.

The aquaduct, still standing, leading to the dam

Huge granite rocks a great water catchment area

A white clay/quartz well built late 1890's

It’s not a long drive today, we cruise off via Coolgardie to Kalgoorlie-Boulder.  We got here about lunch time, booked into Discovery park, though it took quite a while to set up the annex, as the ground is rock hard and not one blade of grass to be seen, why are we not surprised.   We then take a short drive out to the Superpit lookout, what a hole!  We are smack bang in the middle of the famous Golden Mile. Stayed there a little while watching the goings on in the pit,  then went for a drive over to Mount Charlotte lookout, this spot marks the end of the Golden pipeline trail which starts at Perth, constructed in 1903 and still operates today, supplying water to this area.

SUPER PIT

It's a 40 minute round trip from top to the bottom of the Superpit

I'm sorry can someone tell me what this is?? Not very attractive

View from Mt Charlotte back to Superpit area