Greetings from the racecourse at Meekatharra. We are about 5 kms out of town with another couple, from NSW, in a caravan camped on what is just a parking area with no facilities.

This morning I did the so called heritage walk in Mt Magnet based on a simple booklet that the shire puts out. The only problem was the none of the features were signposted, it was still a nice walk. We then moved on to another feature from the booklet called The Granites where we expected to see aborigine rock art. On arrival there was a mud map, we then went to one of the picnic spots and spent nearly an hour unsuccessfully looking for the paintings. Pity that they hadn't taken the tourist thing a bit further and signposted the attractions in town and out of town.

We also stopped at Cue for lunch and to have a little look around. There are some beautiful, old, buildings here then wonder of wonders I drove. On the way to Meekatharra we saw an open cut be that seemed to rival to Kalgoorlie super pit in size. We had a look but weren't able to find out anything about the operation here which is fairly big.

Saturday May 2

I'm a bit late doing this blog as we got in fairly late yesterday, contrary to our usual routine. Settling in to the caravan park at Mt Magnet. 

We started the day at The Lookout heading for Sandstone which turned out to be a very small town with very nice lady running the visitor centre. This was also a heritage museum and we spent s lot of time looking at the exhibits. Theses included a little school cas like the one Lyla uses for her extra dominoes and a singer sewing machine even older than the one we have from early in the days of mums marriage. There is also a lady called lady Di who makes pies fresh on the spot after you order it and who has big colourful flags all over town. There was also a very old Vauxhall just like my dads except it is a rusted out wreck and is the wrong colour, nevertheless I photgraphed for posterity. 

Just before reaching sandstone we detoured to look at a rock formation called London Bridge probably because that is what it looked like. On the same detour we looked at the remains of on old brewery run by an Irishman at the turn of the last century. It was sited on top of s large rock with the brew stored in a cave underneath, very enterprising!

Then onward heading for a camp at Rocky Dam. We found the dam but down a track that would turn to impassable after a decent rain, such as was forecast for that night. We checked for our friend who we expected to meet there, couldn't find so moved on to Mt Magnet. While I was walking I came across an abandoned mine, deep and full of water and no safety protection right next to the track. 

Friday May 1

The morning in Leinster stared with discussions about the cyclone heading for Onslow. After crossing the coast it was apparently going to plow through the area in which we are travelling depositing lots of rain as it passed. After a check of the appropriate websites we decided that it wouldn't really affect us as we will be in Cue by the time it got to us. So making a bold decision we decided to move, I hope that decision doesn't come back to bite us on the b-m.

Heading towards Sandstone we have camped for the night, with another motorhome, at a place called Peter Denny's Lookout. It is one of my favourite types of camp perched on top of a semicircular cliff and therefore has absolutely magic views. It is an official camp site with picnic tables but no ablutions and it does have a fire pit, so Elaine is happy. 

The day is and has been overcast so our solar panels have not achieved much and the generator is now running. I am actually a little disappointed in the solar panels so far, they don't seem to be anywhere near as effective as they should be, maybe I will get someone to check the system for me. We also don't have coverage until we go down to Sandstone tomorrow. 

Tonight we are luxuriating in the caravan park at Leinster. Leinster is a mining town, originally gold then nickel but BHP is closing things down and things are going bad for the local business people. The post office & newsagency has its last day tomorrow and from what I saw was probably a good business. It must be very hard for the owner to pack up and quit.

We drove up today from the dam, stopping briefly at Leonora. It seemed that the only thing to see there was the Sons of Gwalia mine historical precinct, but we have sort of done our dash for that sort of thing for the moment......so on we went.

According to signs along the wY we should have seen emus, but no such luck.

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. 

Well today was a little different. We started of with the usual walk, cleaned up after my tap installation efforts (we had to empty the locker under the sink and of course I spilt a little water), then headed to town. A bit of shopping, empty toilet cassette, top up water and headed off. Before I detail our travels, the park where we stayed has (in addition to the Kokoda history story boards) a significant Vietnam Memorial, the first such that I recall seeing - probably just lack of observation on my part - but quite impressive.

Anyway leaving town we found the local cemetery and the found the Jewish section. It is fairly small and had about 20-30 graves dating back to the turn of the century. We also noted that a little bit of repair and cleaning up is needed. If any knows who does this please advise them of our comments.

Then we headed off to Karlkurla Park which is a huge bushland park on the northern edge of Kalgoorlie showcasing the huge diversity, surprisingly huge, of woodland in this area. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to spend much time doing the extensive walks. It was set up using work for the dole people.

Back on the Goldfields Highway we drove northwards looking for a campground from one of the websites that we use. Despite 2 off highway rough road excursions no luck. But that meant that we kept going to Menzies where we are now bedded down in the shire run caravan park, very nicely set up, for the princely sum of $12!

Lazy bones slept too long to go to the dawn service!
Interesting day today, after Elaine did some washing we went sightseeing. I have heard about the super pit ever since Alan Bond first floated the idea and tried to get a huge gold mining combine going. He didn't suceed but born out of the idea came the companies that set up the so called Super Pit. Up to now I had never seen it and like a lot of other things that are just part of discussion it turned out to be unbelievably huge, and I mean huge. Lots of those huge haulpack trucks were actually dwarfed because of the distance away from us and we were standing in the lookout at the edge of the pit and they were a long way down. A real long way down! Elaine even found some rocks lying around with tiny, tiny specs of gold - maybe!!!
Then on to the Mt Charlotte Reservoir lookout. This is the end of Golden Pipeline where all the water from Mudaring is pumped. The view, as one would expect, superb.
On the way back we stopped at Bunnings to get a replacement tap for the leaking galley tap. Now that proved to be fun, firstly the fittings to join into our system were female and we needed male! So I used the old fittings, meaning the flexible hoses that connect to our system. Now all we have to do is clean up the mess that I made......in the morning!

Yesterday I walked to the peak of the big rock then continued on the 'long' walk trail to another, not quite so big rock, following the marked trail. Then I ran out of markers, little metal posts with arrows indicating where to go, as I got to the other side of the second rock. To go further would have taken me into bush and, not being an experienced bush walker and not having a compass etc and with hand held 2 way having run out of battery, I took the safe option and backtracked. Today I followed a track from the camp which turned out to be this missing part of yesterday's walk and it turned out that was was nearly home when I turned back! It was still interesting as I saw more of the system of acquaducts that made up this catchment area.
Meanwhile back at the ranch/van, Elaine had turned on the hot water system to have a shower and the water wasn't getting hot, which meant I think that the hws wasn't working. After a consultation with the operators manual I turned it off then on a couple of times and it started working. That wasn't soon enough to stop Elaine freezing and using a kettle of hot water, but later on I got a hot shower!!!
Back to the Great Eastern Highway and on to Kalgoorlie passing through Coolgardie.
We then picked up Elaine's hard drive of movies which our lovely house sitter Kath had posted to Kalgoorlie after we forgot to pack it. Then a wee bit of shopping before heading to Centennial Park where we shall spend the night. We have about 9 other vans for company, unusually 5 of them are motorhomes like us.
Good night all I trust that you will enjoy tomorrow and remember the sentiments and sacrifices that Anzac Day commemorates.