27/10/19 Salt & statues

       Leaving Leonora , we are heading south again , today & tomorrow are forecast to be a bit cooler ( if you can call 29 degrees cooler ?? ) and it will suit us just fine for our next destination . 

  Stopping at Menzies for a quick break , we changed drivers and headed out , 53 kilometres to drive , 23 kms were gravel road . There was a section of minor corrugations and some rocky bits , but it was generally pretty good . Before long we'd arrived and parked , time to go for a walk to see where we could set up - we decided this would view would do us nicely for a couple of nights .

  This is Lake Ballard .

 And it's claim to fame are the Anthony Gormley Sculptures installed in 2003 . There are 51 sculptures placed strategically around 10 square kilometres of salt lake - and with no maps , it's up to you to wander around them all if you wish . Some are 100m apart , whilst others are 500m or more , some are placed beyond some of the closer islands .

 This island is just over 2 kms from where we are parked , and shimmers in the heat haze / mirage .

 Lake Ballard goes for nearly 50 kms back to the east from here , it's huge !! The bush an the edge of the lake is Samphire - a bush that thrives in this harsh environment .

 This is one of the first sculptures you find on your trip on the lake .

 Colours of the lake are quite amazing , reflections in the heat haze were also great .

  After lunch we headed out and climbed the small island in the first photo , views are awesome , people have decided to write their names etc on the lake bed using rocks from the hill - as someone has said on wikicamps - Visual graffiti without using paint ! we tend to agree .

 Back to the views .

  As the sun went down , the colours intensified .

 After an extremely quiet night , we headed out early on the bikes , the lake was firm underfoot and we made it out about 1klm before it got just that little bit to soft underneath , anyway we got to walk the bikes along the next 3 or 4 klms . Thought this guy might like to go for a ride - he didn't bother - must have known something we didn't hahaha .

 The island that was shimmering in the heat haze yesterday seemed to call us over , so we obliged after checking quite a few os the sculptures on the way , we were surprised to find some of the plants on the island were flowering .

 Surrounding the lake are sections of orange sand , creating great contrasts with the greenery of the shrubbery & the lake colours .

 The remains of a fence line disappeared across the lake under surveillance from one sculpture .

 Yes the drone came out again , here's the little island just out from the campsite from above .

  You can make out some of the tracks that people take between the sculptures .

  There are sculptures out to the middle of the photo to the left of the islands , and to the right & behind .

 This is looking to the east at quite a lot of the islands in the lake .

  This island almost looks like a pikelet from above .

     A tracked vehicle has been going all around the lake , think it may have been removing some of the sculptures that have been damaged , to take away for repairs . The tracks looked good from the drone .

  Footprints also stood out ( pardon the pun ) . When the footprints were made , the lake was wetter and now the salt is crystallising in the footprints making them look white .

  We made it back to the van after about 3 and a half hours of walking & riding and flying the drone .
After some lunch we sat outside battling the flies & reading . The drone came out again , this dune was only about 100m away from us .

  That's us down there - yep the white thing .

  Another great day was had , and after sunset we went back outside and watched shooting stars under the biggest of outback skies , millions of starts twinkling away . The peace & quiet was disturbed by 3 or 4 groups of people out walking the lake with head torches - they arrived late ( in the dark ) and one group left early next morning .
 That didn't do anything to affect our wonderful couple of days , a great place to visit . Her's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1H_wOLTfH0JWYZV-hgmxCXo9IfFqzEmfN&usp=sharing

26/10/19 Hardships , craftsmen and splendor

    Still at Leonora , we headed out to the showpiece - the township of Gwalia ( pronounced Gworlia apparently ) . It's only a few kilometres south of town and is adjacent the Gwalia Gold Mine . Most of the old town has been kept intact , and has been restored to give you an insight to the conditions these people faced daily .
  At the top of the hill overlooking the mine pit is Hoover House , the Assay Office and the Mine Office . Nearby is the head frame and winder shed , transport shed and the museum office / shop .
  This is the view into the pit , showing the different colours in the right hand side wall .

  The start attraction is Hoover House , which is also used as a B&B and you can have snacks & drinks on the verandah as well .

 Lovely green lawn & garden seems very strange here , such a dry and unforgiving place , this is the view to the front door .

 And this is the view looking out from the front door & verandah - straight out over the pit !!

    Such an opulent house was commissioned by Herbert Hoover as the residence for the mine manager . This was Herbert Hoover's room - he went on to become the 31st president of USA .

Sitting & Dining rooms.

On this dresser is a photo of a dinner that was held - called the gold bar dinner , the WA Premier attended and on the end of the table were 4 gold bars , same as the replica on the dresser - this was how much gold they found and processed in the first month of production in 1899 .

 It's a very comprehensive museum , lot's of machinery , tools and everything used at the mine .



 A selection of bottles beside a large steel boiler .



 This is the winder shed - it houses the 2 cylinder steam powered 1000 horse power winder that hauled the ore skips to the surface from the underground mine .

 These 2 cogs intrigued me , on first look you'd think okay a couple of old cogs , but on closer inspection these are hand crafted from timber !! What excellent craftsmanship , the different angles and circular surfaces and the teeth all hand crafted !

 Looks like hard work to me . There's also carriages and the old steam engine .

 Inside the museum is an old International mail truck and a tram - they had a tram that ran from Gwalia into Leonora .

   From the museum , we drove back down to the houses below - most are open for inspection , so you can just walk through . It was 34 degrees so we were expecting them to be like ovens - we were pleasantly surprised , they weren't cold , but they were certainly cooler than outside ?

 This house had newspaper as wallpaper , most had hessian that had been plastered , concrete floors or dirt .



 Gwalia Stat Hotel is a little further down the road , but is privately owned so there's no access to it .

 This is the pink house , also surprisingly cooler with the awning windows and the breeze blowing through .

 This is the Sly Grog shop .

 And inside .

 Behind the Sly Grog Shop is the Lock Up - this we were expecting to be stinking hot - it was fully lined with timber boards and also quite cool even though there were no windows .

The  Garage obviously .

 This is part of the Patroni's Guest House - single rooms with 2 single beds and nothing else , meals were done in the house on the right .

  This has been a huge eye opener for us , the conditions these people lived and worked in are almost unimaginable , so difficult , testing the people to the limit .
 Gwalia also still has some residents living here in 7 or 8 houses .
 It was getting hotter so we headed back toward town , we spotted a track up to a water tank and looked like it went further up the hill as well . Nothing ventured , nothing gained we headed in , got to the water tank and up a bit higher before needing 4wd to get to the top of a very rocky track . Turns out that this hill is Mt Leonora . Views are looking straight at Leonora township .

  Definitely a place we have enjoyed looking at , lot's of surprises . Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=18u38W6mROsFW9q_jz5vz5rspUPWDHP5E&usp=sharing