A Kiwi in online worlds: December 2017

If you are ever going to visit Kalgoorlie I can recommend the following: Find someone with 30 years’ experience in the area, get them to organize a van and drive you around all day. Mark (Foxy) has been doing business in and around Kalgoorlie for 30 years and has a really detailed knowledge of the city and its history.

We all hopped in the van that was loaned to us by the Motel we were staying in and he drove us round the city all day. First stop was the Super Pit. If you haven’t been to Kal, it’s worth it just to see this. It is a massive hole on the ground, currently 1.5km long, 1.2km wide and 800m deep and it’s going to get bigger before they are finished. The Kalgoorlie gold mine is the richest strike ever found anywhere in the world and they aren’t going to stop until they have every last dollars’ worth.

At the edge of the pit as you look down, there is a sign showing how big and how expensive the mining trucks and vehicles are. Looking down I added up 250 million dollars’ worth of equipment in use that day.

Next up was the Kalgoorlie Mining Museum. This was a lot more fun than I expected. They have little historical diorama’s showing you the history of mining in the area as well as tools and machinery used in the past.

The trucks are cool!, 3 stories tall at least!.

There is a beautiful Chinese fountain to commemorate the involvement of the Chinese workers in early mining.

Kalgoorlie Mining Museum

A survival pod if you are ever trapped underground

Biker accommodation in Kalgoorlie

Breakfast!

Imagine waking up to make brekky in this every morning

One of the interesting things about walking around Kalgoorlie is the number of titty bars that appear to be open 24/7. They all have signs outside advertising the girls who work there and when they open. Often they are open 24 hours a day with shift change at 2-3 am and 9-10 am

Strippers and topless barmaids (known as Skimpy s)24 hours a day!

Chinese reflection pool was beautiful

Beautiful reflection pool

A BMW in Coolgardie

Coolgardie was one of the little towns surrounding Kalgoorlie as we headed west. It was actually rather beautiful with lots of historic buildings but they were all closed as it was early on a Sunday morning

Explorers

Lunch at Merredin

JR having a coffee in the middle of nowhere

Leeane have something to eat in the middle of nowhere

Jicki having a coffee in the middle of nowhere

Foxy wondering why he was in the middle of nowhere

The agricultural heritage of Western Australia. We were riding through an area that is basically several thousand kilometers of Wheat farms

Narembeen, Lunch halfway to Hyden, a rather good bakery!

We got to Hyden after several more hours of cursing the long straight roads. My ass and my tires were wearing flat strips in the middle. Its actually a fascinating place. The town was incorporated in the mid 20th century, something that is common in the USA but very rare in the USA. The locals own the town and run all of the various businesses in the town. There is a huge hotel, an airport that brings in 1.5M visitors a year and of course all of the facilities surrounding the rock itself. Its well worth the run from Pert to have a look, take a couple of days.

The rock itself is very similar to Uluru. Its the tip of a mountain of Granite poking above the surrounding countryside. The slight difference with Uluru is you are allowed to walk all around it and on it.

From the top of Hyden rock

Wave rock

Jick and I in front of the wave

A famous and apparently taboo place, a witch used to live there

Foxy, Leeanne and Jicki

A friend come to visit

Downtown Hyden

A BMW in Hyden

A BMW with Bicycles in Hyden

An M109 in Hyden

Hanging out in front of the town hall

Bike Porn

This is how far away from everything Hyden is!

We hung out in Hyden for a day and headed, gratefully to Perth.

Gorrigin Roadhouse, because it had a car on its roof!

The Big Dog in a Ute

York its practically a suburb of Perth!

A BMW in York!

Foxy, JR and coffee

York

The Indian Ocean!

We headed towards thew coast from York and we started to see glimpses of the ocean. But the feeling I had when we crested the final hill and saw beach and open ocean for the first time was incredible. We did it, we road from Sydney to Pert in one trip. It was an amazing trip and we made some fantastic friends in JR and Leeane. I would travel with them again in a heart beat.
That's one ticked off the bucket list!!