Monday April 27

I started today with a walk down the main street of Menzies. Actually the only street, not counting the residential areas set well back either side of the main street which is the Goldfields Highway. There is very little commerce here just the pub/general store, a small cafe, a card operated fuel outlet and the mainstay of the town the local shire whose offices are in the very nice old town hall building. This building dates from the early 1900s and with various additions etc is a fine centrepiece for the town. There is also, of course a very nice visitors centre and the caravan park that we stayed in. Then would you believe it a water playground! The history of the town is documented by flat metal statues with story boards showing the sites and broadbrush history of the activities at those sites spread around the town. A lot of effort has gone into make this informative and interesting.

I expect to see a lot of this sort of thing on this part of the trip as this area is goldrush territory and the towns here got big and rich quickly then mostly died just as quickly. Menzies had about a 12 year life of riches but survives today as the seat of local government. 

The hilight of this section was always going to be the Inside Australia sculptures on Lake Ballard by Antony Gormley. For those who aren't aware of this it is a series of 51 sculptures commissioned here as part of the 50th anniversary of the Festival of Perth in 2003. The drive here is 53 kms of largely unsealed road from Menzies but is not bad as unsealed roads go. There is a campground basic but ok and we got here just in time for lunch. Too hot to go walking across the enormous salt lake so we waited until 4.30 then walked across to the first 2 figures and a small but very tall island in the middle of the lake, not the real middle but a far way from the putative shore. We then climbed the hill to a lookout that enabled us to survey the whole area from a great height! That's correct for those who noticed we both climbed it, well done Elaine.

Tuesday April 28 - still no coverage so written in notes to be copied and pasted at a later date!

Another day another walk this time further out on the lake to visit a few more of  the Insiders. There are lots of footprints  showing that people have walked all over to see the Insiders but the further one walks the more the numbers are reduced.....surprise, surprise. Also as I walked further the surface underfoot became sloppier, eventually I reached actual salt on the surface and decided that that was far enough. There are signs everywhere advising the various precautions, ie. 5 litres of water, for walking on the salt. We did our first walk late afternoon and this one was moderately early (can't be too early as that would mean getting out of bed at an early hour) in the morning to avoid the heat of the day. There was one poor Insider with both feet amputated and the body replanted a few centimetres behind the feet! According to the per work etc this sight was chosen by the artist, but I wonder how come he was here? Probably at the suggestion of someone local?!? Anyway the site is a long way from population centres and the statues are very spread out all of which limits their 'viewability'. Still for me it was a hilight of the trip as expected. 

Ever onward, this time to Kookynie. Another goldrush ghost town and again more building remains with explanations to be seen. Including what was the local brothel and I guess that business would have been brisk in the boom times, but I wonder how many prospectors got credit?

Then back a little bit to Niagara Dam, that's correct but note not Niagara Falls. This dam was built by CY O'Connor  to service the steam trains only to find, shortly after completion, that there is/was ample ground water in the area. We then settled down for the night to share a fire with a neighbouring motorhome.