The Goldfields


We left the cool breezes of the Southern Ocean and headed back into the toasty Outback of Western Australia.  Driving north 250 miles through the interior desert (temps at 104), our destination is Kalgoorlie.  It a gold  mining town and has been for more than 120 years.  The area is the richest square mile on earth and is called the Golden Mile because more than 60 million ounces of gold have been extracted from it.  Back in the gold rush days, there were 80 separate mining operations extracting gold but in '89, a company purchased all the leases and turned the area into one giant gold mine called the Super Pit.  This mine is still very lucrative producing approximately 600,000 ounces of gold each year.  We had to go check it out!

The Super Pit is almost a mile deep

Haul Truck holds 229.5 tons of ore at a time

Safety first when you are going to see the Super Pit

Given where we'd been recently, Kalgoorlie (pop 30k) felt like a happening place!  The town has done a super job of preserving so many of it's original buildings.  The travel brochures tout that Kalgoorlie has a cosmopolitan vibe which we thought was pretty funny.  We're not sure that we ever found it during our stay. 😉




We enjoyed the area very much and were so very lucky to get here when we did.  A fire which was burning earlier in the week had become more intense closing the roads between Esperance and Kalgoorlie.  The bush land here is so very dry.  One local we talked with said it hadn't rained in more than a year.
Bush land of WA

Travelers heading to the ocean for holiday along with truckers were parked along the road waiting for the road to reopen.  Alternative paths are not really an option in this remote part of the country.  To date, this is the closest we have been to a major fire.
Road Trains.
You will note that the semi trucks have 3 or 4 trailers attached.  They call these monsters road trains and we've encountered them all over Australia.  The vast majority of Aussie's roads are two lane only with a speed limit of 70 mph.  We've adapted to driving on the left pretty well, but passing one of these things is always a bit stressful.

Eek!
We are hopeful that all the truckers and travelers made it to their destinations safely so they can enjoy the holidays.  Speaking of which, we are heading back to Perth for Christmas.  It will be the last few days we enjoy here in Western Australia before we head over to Adelaide.  

Season's Greetings!

Dan and Cheryl

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